City Council on Wednesday voted to rezone 113 acres, where a company wants to build the 270-home Lake Pointe neighborhood.
The Manning Road Development Group still has a couple of boxes to check before moving forward, including completing a road widening project.
Councilmembers Tim Johnson and Shelley Butler Barlow, however, don't think the area is right for hundreds more homes.
“I still am not convinced that we can make Manning Road safe enough for this kind of an increase in traffic,” Barlow said.
The developer argues that the roadwork, which would widen Manning from 18 to 20 feet and level it, will improve safety but it wouldn’t meet the standards the Virginia Department of Transportation requires for new roads.
“This would still be a road that has a rural character, with open roadside ditches,” said Jason Souders, Suffolk transportation planning manager. “They may need to pipe ditches and provide inlets; they’re aware of that and willing to do that.”
Grady Palmer, an attorney representing Manning Road Development, said the work will likely cost more than $2.5 million.
Some residents welcome the improvements. Others remain unconvinced that the work will improve the road’s safety and are concerned about straining overcrowded schools. The homes are projected to increase the student population by 112, 49 of whom would attend the over-capacity Kilby Shores Elementary, according to the city’s calculations.
Manning Road Development agreed to contribute $1.7 million to offset the impact of its project. The city plans to rebuild the nearly 50-year-old elementary school after 2031 at a cost of more than $70 million.
Lake Pointe, for some, is another instance of runaway growth in Suffolk. The city is the fastest-growing in the region and the fifth fastest in the state. Its population reached 100,000 in 2023 and is expected to surpass 130,000 by 2050.
Suffolk is trying to keep up and expects to spend several million on roads and schools over the next 10 years. But opponents to Lake Pointe, as proposed — similar to the 497-home Riversbend development — said on Wednesday, it’s too much too soon.
“Major roadway improvements must be in place before approving developments of this scale,” resident Diana Klink said. “Growth without infrastructure is not smart growth.”
Councilmember Ebony Wright said Suffolk’s “overgrowth” was a cumulative effect, and that changing it will take time and collaboration with residents and developers. She said she can’t remember a time when a developer offered this level of roadwork for a housing project.
“We’re already struggling because the development is not bringing in enough revenue to take care of the things that we need,” Wright said. “We’re not going to get there just by real estate taxes and the revenue that comes into this city; we have to be realistic here.”
