Phase III of the North King Street Corridor Master Plan Begins

October 26, 2006

Earlier this year, Urban Design Associates (UDA) was hired by the City of Hampton to develop a Master Plan for the North King Street Corridor. This process began in February of 2006. So far City staff and the UDA team have conducted two phases, of a three phase planning process:

1. Collected initial data and received input from residents and other stakeholders (February 14-15).

2. Presented preliminary ideas and options and received feedback from key stakeholders, residents,
   and City staff (May 9-11).

North King Street is one of the city's first and most important roads as it extends from Downtown Hampton to Langley Air Force Base. Over the past century, North King Street has evolved from its original function as the city's first north/south street, to the primary connection to Langley Air Force Base, and to a connective spine and entrance to many of the city's neighborhoods. The commercial uses that were once located on North King Street have been siphoned off by the commercial establishments on Mercury Boulevard, Coliseum Central's growth in the 70s and 80s, etc.; likewise much of the vehicular traffic destined for Langley AFB has shifted to LaSalle Avenue. As these conditions have occurred, older commercial corridors like North King Street were left to serve a more limited function focused exclusively on a smaller segment of the neighborhood-oriented service sector. The goal of this master plan is to identify strategies for the corridor which will enhance and support the overall health of the adjacent neighborhoods.

Recommendations thus far include concepts such as street network improvements, open space, waterfront access, changes in land uses, housing and commercial development, among others. The vision for the North King Street Corridor is represented by a series of drawings and illustrations that allow residents, business persons and potential investors to visualize the kind of place that the North King Street Corridor could become once the plan is adopted and implemented.

Given the size of the geographic area and diversity of the issues that are addressed by this plan, additional opportunities for community input have been offered by presenting the Plan to more than fifteen community groups, business persons, and individuals since the May 11th public presentation at Barron Elementary School. The input received was forwarded to the consultants to be used to improve the preliminary ideas that UDA generated during the charrette. Based on community and staff input, UDA will produce a series of "improved ideas" that will be presented at the third public meeting.

The third public meeting will take place on Thursday, November 16, 2006 at 7:00 P.M. in the John Tyler Elementary School cafeteria located at 57 Salina Street in Hampton (King Street to W. Gilbert St., to Roane Dr. to Salina Street). During this step of the process we will arrive at some agreement around the "best ideas" formulated as a draft master plan which should move forward to the Planning Commission and ultimately to the City Council for approval in the 2006/07 timeframe.

For more information call the City of Hampton Planning Department at 757-727-6140 or visit our web site at www.hampton.gov/community-plan/implementation.html.

###