Arctic_Tern

Two directional forces cars to slow down more, which is exactly what you want in the downtown area with so many pedestrians around. New York has one way streets because their extremely high density grid pattern means that if every street was 2 way it would severely clog things up. Norfolk is nowhere near having this problem. I do wish that Norfolk would think about making some of the streets between Killiam and Colley one way, I don't think 2 cars can fit next to each other on most of those streets.

I'm interested to see how much the folks that pay that much for a townhome enjoy being right next to Hampton Blvd

They tore down Hershee's for this? What a bad look for the city, absolutely disappointing.

Yeah, after JMU moves up we could've been kings! Winning every year over the likes of Monmouth and Towson to a crowd of 5,000 mild fans!

I think them being across the water is the reason for better relations.

Can't wait to have 7 years of meetings and consultations and reports to eventually decide that actually we can't do BRT.

Yeah, Something in the Water occurred despite Virginia Beach not because of it. And it will not continue there because Virginia Beach just has to be Virginia Beach. Hopefully SITW can come back to another Hampton Roads city cause I can't see VB ever making the changes needed to keep it there long term.

Also when I hear folks talking about how much they loved living in Ghent, rarely do I hear them talk about Ghent Village or Ghent on the Square. Those are a lot less appealing than actual Ghent is.

Y'all when I say density I don't mean "height", I mean density. Having a dense area of 4-5 story buildings is much better than having 8-9 story buildings with parking lots everywhere. But having 4-5 story buildings with parking lots everywhere is not dense and it is not urban. And the examples that you have provided are much more compact than what is being presented. These lots are gigantic compared to what you pictured. And how do you develop these lots in the future when they're locked in the center of the block? I don't really see how it's possible. All we're doing if we move forward with this development is committing to having low density development/parking lots having a significant presence in our downtown for the next 50 years.

I am not exaggerating here. The only difference between this and what's in VB or Chesapeake is that the parking lot is in the middle not the front. With the parking lot in the middle we are locking ourselves into this low-density development for 50+ years. For anyone saying this is "Ghent 2" please point to me on a map where Ghent has superblocks with the majority of land being dedicated to parking. This is not good urban design and is just repeating the same mistakes we've been making for decades.

This is not Ghent 2 and this is not an urban development. All of those parking lots kill the density of the area. Cut the blocks in half and get rid of all of that surface parking and then you might have something close to Ghent 2. Otherwise this is just more suburban development.

I'm not certain but I believe that surface lot is a different lot and is not owned by the retirement community.

It does not work though, if it's already set up and worked then why are we in this situation? Hampton Roads as it is set up is not in a bourough system, it is not the Bay area, what it is is a fractured region with each city trying to up their stature at the expense of the rest. In order to get what we have to work would require major systematic reform and for Virginia Beach to give up a lot of power.

It's not even as dense as Ghent is though. It's more like an expanded version of that area of Granby with 201 Twenty One, The Element, and The Alexander, except now with more surface lots. I'm okay with a 4/5 story urban neighborhood, but make it urban gosh dangit!

This is what that article is referencing: https://www.navalstationnorfolktransit.com/projectupdates/project-update-august-2021 To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with the decision. The BRT line would not connect ODU to Downtown, and if someone were to fly to the airport and want to take public transit to Downtown, they would need to take a shuttle from the airport to the BRT, the BRT to the Tide Station, and then take the Tide into downtown. Precisely zero people will make this or similar trips when taking an Uber is so much easier, faster, and probably cheaper. Going for BRT instead of Light Rail to finish up the eastern section just further exacerbates the biggest issue that The Tide has, that it does not take people from where they are to a place they want to be. And it makes taking public transit even harder by forcing people to make multiple mode changes in order to really get anywhere. This is really frustrating and honestly a gigantic step backwards, in my first-take opinion.

After a quick read I'm guessing that the plan is to extend Monarch Way out to 39th street, and then close off the portion of 40th street between Hampton Blvd and the newly extended Monarch way (or utilize the same space without extending Monarch Way). ODU owns all the parcels around Central Radio too, so I'm guessing we'll see some movement there in the coming years.

Question, is the ODU Real Estate Foundation a legally distinct entity from ODU itself? I haven't seen the school announce anything about a grocery store or apartments, even though I feel like this would be a pretty big deal for them.

The wellness circle proposal would be much better if you're trying to build out an urban area though. It actually establishes a grid pattern and has areas for organic future development. The Crossroads proposal creates a walled garden that will be difficult to access by anything but car for future developers in the area. The bones of the wellness circle proposal are much much better than the crossroads one in my opinion.

Also remember how the city is using this proposal as a seed development. The Military Highway spine is the highest land in the city, and will be a focus of development over the next 50 years. Proposals like this get ahead of that and will help model the direction the City wants to go in for the future of the area.

The more I look through these the more I like the Wellness Circle. Crossroads is nice but seems pretty generic and isolated. I dunno, there's something about that one that makes me feel like it'd be hostile to future nearby developments. And the light rail integration is pretty bad imo. Wish there was a bit more height on the buildings in Wellness Circle, and fewer surface lots, but those aren't dealbreakers for me. I find the addition of townhomes on the eastern side to be really interesting. I really like having the park in the center, and I LOVE the architecture of the proposed stadium. Now I know these are renders and we've been bitten bad by that before (stares at the casino project), but if we could get that stadium that would look amazing.

Oooh I'm gonna have a good evening digging into these. I will say, one of the outcomes I believe the city wants is for this to be a seed of further development to build a new urban core. Crossroads seems nice, but it also seems kinda isolated and I worry it might be difficult to connect it to a more urban footprint in the future. Wellness circle seems like it would flawlessly fit in a larger street grid, but the buildings seem a bit sparse. And the Well, although I do love the park, and feel it would be a great amenity to have, is lacking an arena and it doesn't really seem to have any density whatsoever. But these are just my first impressions. Time to get deep into these proposals

That was for the west side study that goes through Ghent and ODU. The route that would tagalong I-64 and hit the airport and military circle on the way to the Navy Base is the highest land in Norfolk and has been targeted as a priority area for the city. I've talked with current Norfolk City Council members about it before and I have a high confidence of rail being added along that corridor.

No but I have noticed they've been silent on the East expansion of the Tide for a long time. I thought it was to try and bide their time until they could lobby for money as a part of the infrastructure bill, but seeing how it would be an integral part of the Military Circle project that might have something to do with it as well.

Ooooooooooh, good find! The increased range mentioned in the article would be to 4000 nautical miles (~4600 miles). This would also put into range from ORF: Rome, Sao Paulo, The Nordic Countries, Bratislava, all of Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Czechia, Austria, and Slovenia. Now that would be a pretty big deal.

Unfortunately, after looking at the range of the aircraft (6,300km), it looks like Europe would probably not be the easiest go with this particular plane. Can hit the Ireland/UK, just barely Paris/Western France, just barely Madrid/Western Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and a slight bit of western Africa. Would be easy to get to Bermuda, the Caribbean, anywhere in Mexico, northern South America, anywhere in Canada, and the most populous parts of Alaska. Hoping for a direct to the Caribbean/Cancun, that would be pretty awesome. A Norfolk/Dublin or Norfolk/Iceland flight would be much appreciated too. Funnily enough, this plane would be able to go to Svalbard (a place that I want to visit one day, most northern civilization in the world) and wouldn't be able to go to any of the countries directly south to it. If any Breeze Airways folks are reading just know if you schedule a direct flight between Norfolk and Svalbard just know you'll have already sold one seat.