In the latest edition of Bacon’s Rebellion, I profile Burrell Saunders, the lead architect behind Virginia Beach’s Town Center. This project has converted several blocks of suburban strip development in the Pembroke area into a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use community with only modest assistance from the City of Virginia Beach. (See “Extreme Makeover.”)
A number of points arise from this column that bear upon ongoing conversations on this blog.
The biggest barrier to re-development of the district was the restrictive city zoning code. Once the city created a special code for the Town Center district, the project began moving.
Increased density does not necessarily result in increased congestion. I visited the Pembroke area from around 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. The main thoroughfares — Independence and Virginia Beach Boulevards are modestly congested but hardly onerous. Automobile traffic was remarkably light on the side streets.
It won’t take two generations to make significant changes in human settlement patterns. Transportation-efficient development in the right location can have an immediate impact, reducing the number of car trips on crowded arterial roads. Reforming land use in Virginia cannot be dismissed as a long-term solution — it is very much a here-and-now solution.
