Buckroe choice will pollute bay
By Sandra Canepa
Daily Press
February 20, 2007
In a Feb. 5 letter to Jesse Wallace, Hampton city manager, James Freas of the Hampton planning department advises that automobile use "... is one of the greatest contributors to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay."
How much sense, then, did it make for the Hampton City Council to have chosen Option B for Buckroe's Lots B, particularly when the council was aware that out of 84 local governments comprising Tidewater, Hampton was the only one listed as "inconsistent" with respect to some basic Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Phase I program requirements?
Option B will require: on-street parking on both sides of the length of North First Street (and is expected to turn the street, which runs a close parallel to the Chesapeake Bay, into the main thoroughfare between Buckroe and Fort Monroe); two additional streets to be cut through the two Lots B closest to the Chesapeake Bay; increased on-street public parking throughout Buckroe closer to the beach and the Chesapeake Bay; residential housing on all three Lots B, which will greatly increase automobile use along the bayfront throughout the year.
Option B will greatly increase automobile use and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
Visit www.buckroebeach.org to view Options B and D-1 and judge which option would be more Chesapeake Bay-friendly considering the planning department's own call that automobile use "... is one of the greatest contributors to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay." Readers may contact the City Council at council@hampton.gov to voice concerns about Option B and Bay pollution.
Sandra Canepa
Hampton
