LOCALS OFFER FEEDBACK ON DENBIGH
NEWPORT NEWS — People who visited the Denbigh Community Center Wednesday evening each got $1,000 to spend on revitalization of the area and donated five hours of time to causes that were important to them.
The cash was play money, and the time was represented by little pom-poms, but people got to share what they believe should be the top priorities as the city develops its
Denbigh-Warwick Area Plan.
They also got to vote on where the city’s buildings in the area — the library, fire station 9, police station and municipal services office — should go if they were relocated or expanded.
The objective of the area plan is to establish a comprehensive, long-range vision for 12 square miles bounded by Boxley Boulevard, Enterprise Drive, the Warwick River and the CSX railroad.
The ideas people responded to Wednesday were gathered from an open house meeting in July and from a survey conducted in the fall.
Karla Oliver said she put money toward economic revitalization because she felt business growth was the base to support other types of revitalization in the area. She pointed out empty store fronts and said there needed to be more to draw people to Denbigh.
Economic revitalization was one of five places people could put their money and time toward, along with improving health and safety, natural systems, connectivity and placemaking, which focuses on a sense of place and creating space for public gatherings.
Johnathan West also said economic development was key and added that ways in and out of the area should be improved. Better ways to and through Denbigh would boost business because people would be more likely to come and then stay.
Oliver said she would like Denbigh to appear more welcoming by having more vibrant businesses or city-owned buildings at the entrances to the area and on Warwick Boulevard.
Proposals for Grissom and more
One of the central elements of the plan is what to do with the city services clustered on Old Courthouse Way. City officials have agreed that they’ve outgrown their respective offices in that location.
The proposals people could vote on Wednesday largely involved moving those services onto Warwick Boulevard.
One idea pitched moving the library, fire station, municipal services and police station to the site of the long vacant K-Mart building. Doing something with that building was a common request from the people who attended the July meeting.
Another idea suggested expanding the library to take over all the city space on Old Courthouse Way and moving the rest of the city offices in Denbigh to the Sherwood Shopping Center.
These two ideas were the most popular of the four presented.
Sherwood Shopping Center is city-owned and has empty space alongside existing businesses and a soon-to-be empty Ferguson building. Quick sketches by WRT, Philadelphia-based urban planners hired to help develop the area plan, show keeping some of the existing building and incorporating new construction along Warwick.
The other two ideas were moving everything at Old Courthouse Way to the Sherwood site and moving the library to a space next to the Denbigh Community Center and the rest of the services to Sherwood.
Woo Kim, a principal with WRT, said people displayed great interest in what would be done with Grissom Library, more so than other services around it because people have less direct interaction with them.
The Grissom Library is the busiest in the city, seeing about 286,000 visitors last year. The building was built about 40 years ago and has seen some renovations and upgrades, but the building can’t keep up with technological developments. The building is about 17,000 square feet, only half of the recommended square footage.
Angela Hopkins, the city’s project manager, said staff and WRT would compile the information gathered and present a plan proposal to the City Council in the coming months.
For more information on the plan, go to nnva.gov/2401/ Denbigh-Warwick-Area-Plan.