April 2, 2007
Fort Lee Growth Management Plan
The attached†presentation was presented at last Thursday’s BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure)-related meeting.† It outlines the questions that consulting firm RKG Associates will seek to provide answers to, in an effort to help the areas surrounding Fort Lee prepare for the base’s expansion.† The study results are due to be released late summer to early fall.† Click here to read the .ppt file.
I wonder if the growth of Fort Lee would help Petersburg & Hopewell in a long run, I’m hoping that the counties of Prince George and Chesterfield do not propel more suburban-homes just for them. There are plenty of cool houses in Petersburg and Hopewell to occupy.
R-
One can predict that the Fort Lee expansion will help Petersburg businesses and, in turn, make a nice addition to Petersburg’s tax revenues. But, given Petersburg’s serious crime, trashed neighborhoods and poor educational profile, most prospective homeowners will turn to Prince George and Chesterfield counties for their homes & schools…. unless, of course, these conditions start turning around soon & dramatically.
The efficiency review should help; ditto a school superintendent, and changes in the works on the police force. More on that in a little while…I gotta jet for a meeting.
Granted families will think twice because of the school situation but singles will get apartments and some young families with non-school aged children might buy into the home market during a tour here. All these things will increase Petersburg’s tax base and thus make things better financially.
It’s got to have an impact and I can’t see how any of it will be bad.
re: changes at the police dept, here are two specifics: a) the City is presently going through the search process to identify a Chief of Police, b) the police are kicking off the CPTED community policing program, starting with the Harding St. area as the pilot project.
re: whether or to what extent Petersburg will benefit from the Fort Lee expansion — starting with the total regional impact of $1.2 BILLION per year, let’s say Petersburg only gets 1% of that economic increase…that translates to $12 million dollars in additional economic acitivity locally. Thus, even if this city does not reap the lion’s share on a relative basis, it will certainly absorb a nontrivial amount of that activity on an absolute basis.
Moreover, have you checked housing prices N, E, or W of Richmond, or heck, even in Richmond? If not, this blogger will give you a sense of what some people in Richmond feel. And this real estate blog reported in April that “Our million dollar sales monthly are almost exceeding all the sales in this range. … Yes, there are still competing bids on homes in the Richmond market and it is occurring at the highest rung of the ladder.” Egads. With those sorts of pricing pressures, more people will start looking south of Richmond.
[...] a rep of RKG Associates (the folks who’ve spent the better part of a year forecasting how the BRAC-related growth at Ft. Lee will shake out across Petersburg, Prince George, Dinwiddie, Chesterfield, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell) [...]