■ 04 February 2012 | 5:00 AM
Retreat at Wards Corner
Re 'Wards Corner, a neighborhood in anticipation,' Michelle Washington column, Jan. 20: In 2004 the neighborhood joined the city in a vision for Wards Corner focused on building the street character so critical to public appeal.
Now it is said that Harris Teeter's price for its entry to the neighborhood is abandonment of that street-friendly vision in favor of the standard big parking lot fronting the street. This is the suburban sprawl format that scars so many Hampton Roads byways and precludes walking-oriented development and the human scale so many seek. What Wards Corner residents understood in 2004 is no less true today it is more important how buildings are laid out in relationship to the streets than what brand names they carry on their facades.
Harris Teeter has twice adjusted its plans in Ghent to meet community concerns, first by saving and protecting the historic Wales house and second by creating a screen for its parking lot for Colonial Avenue. Wards Corner citizens should be equally insistent on enhancing its district's future by insisting on a street-friendly design along Little Creek Road and Granby Street.
Harris Teeter is not doing Wards Corner a favor by coming there. If the demographics for strong profits were not there, Harris Teeter would not be interested. The residents have every right to expect and demand that Harris Teeter comply with their vision for Wards Corner and should not be induced to step back from it for any retailer, however attractive that retailer may be.
Otherwise, the vision will never be realized and the Wards Corner commercial district will fail to become the game changer for the image and appeal of the broader Wards Corner that it could become.
Mark Perreault
Norfolk
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I still don't see the attraction...
... to parking behind the store or in a parking garage and having to walk around the store to get to the street side customer entrance, especially in wet weather. The urban design puts a SMALL number of meter controlled spaces along the curb (if any parking at all) and forces all customers but their neighbors to slowly cruise past hundreds of spaces in a parking garage to reach the vacant spaces on the upper levels (many garages don't have ramps to go directly to upper levels). When a retailer caters to large orders (as would a supermarket) customers would have to negotiate the parking garage's ramps with shopping carts with all the risks of a cart rolling down hill and damaging someone's vehicle. Then there's being a target for muggers in the dimly lit parking garage where you're only visible to private guards a SHORT distance away.
Although the new and remodeled buildings where Colosseum Mall used to be are attractive, the street oriented configuration is a giant step backwards. Even a strip mall would have been better.