Citizen report of Buckroe Planning Meetings held October 3, 4, & 5
By Sandra Canepa
October 6, 2006
This letter is one I sent via mass e-mail to hundreds of our supporters and I felt it should be shared with our supporters who visit this website.
"I am going to try to be objective here with my report on what happened on October 5, 2006, at a presentation by Mr. Fred Bonci of LaQuatra Bonci, the professional park planning team hired by the City of Hampton to revitalize Buckroe's Lots B.
As many of you know, prior to October 5, the Hampton Planning Department, Mr. Bonci and his team held open planning sessions to gather information from the public as to what they would like to see go on Lots B.
Mr. Bonci's presentation was a compillation of citizens' input from the October 3 and 4 sessions. After an interesting opening outlining what makes a successful park, Mr. Bonci then displayed and discussed four different drawings for designing Lots B into something different than the high-density, high-cost residential development originally approved in the Buckroe Master Plan.
It is here I must be careful and objective because I do not want anyone to believe the battle to save Lots B as a city park is over......we are still about one or two months away from that objective but the end is in sight.
Even trying to stay calm and rational, knowing things can still go wrong, I am positively thrilled to report two of Mr. Bonci's drawings are exactly what 12,000 Hampton residents wanted when they signed the petition to save Lots B in their entirety as a city park, with sufficent off-street parking, for the public's continued fun, use and relaxation.
Both of those drawings showed that not one foot of the three Lots B will be sold to a developer for private residential housing and both drawings closed off the recently extended part of North First Street to enable the park planners to include more open space and park-like attractions and activities for public use.
And, while one of those two drawings was better than the other to my way of thinking because it included a large, beautifully landscaped parking lot and did not show any on-street parking, either of those two drawings is what thousands of petitioners indicated they want for Lots B whereas the other two drawings showed private and residential housing placed somewhere on one or more of the three Lots B.
The four drawings are going to be made available in Hampton over the next month for public comment and input. They will be found on a website, in Hampton Libraries, and other places as well.
As soon as the four drawings appear in public for your comments, your input and your votes, I will let everyone know.
In the meantime continue checking www.buckroebeach.org for the latest news. Please ask everyone to be on the lookout for the four drawings and to be sure to "VOTE" for their favorite one.
Citizen voting/input procedures will be included when the drawings are made public.
Thank you, and pray, hold your breath, cross your fingers, stay out from under ladders, don't let black cats cross in front of you, and with all that, your votes, and LaQuatra Bonci's talents, Lots B will become the magnificent Chesapeake Bay Front Hampton City Park that supporters and thousands of Hampton residents want for our now and future generations.
Sincerely,
Sandra Canepa
