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Progress-Index, 08/23/2006
Shops, restaurants, park top wants for Petersburg Harbor
By T. DeVon Robinson, Staff Writer
PETERSBURG — Shops, restaurants and a park along the Appomattox River ranked among the top five amenities residents hoped to see on a redeveloped Petersburg Harbor, according to a survey taken at last month’s public meeting of Downtown Petersburg Inc.
At a meeting last night, DPI presented the results of the survey and gave a progress update on the Downtown Harbor Initiative.
Bob Zemp, chairman of the Environmental Committee, said in a presentation that current objectives of his committee include assembling information about the harbor and identifying what sort of development can be constructed there that would have a minimal effect on the environment and still prosper.
This includes examining state, federal, local and corporate data on issues such as wetlands mitigation and the identification of any endangered species.
The committee also need to travel to the harbor to make an environmental assessment beyond aerial shots of the harbor.
“We need to know exactly what’s out there,” he said.
In the past, Zemp said, various organizations and business were established along the harbor that may have left countless pieces of debris or pollutants in the soil that would have to be removed before development could begin.
The committee also plans to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to see if there is a way to keep the harbor from rapidly silting in. This includes adding landscaping and filtration systems to reduce the amount of runoff that enters the harbor.
The Environmental Committee also has plans to look at the infrastructure around the harbor to see if current road layouts would suffice for any sort of development in the area.
DPI hopes to bring in the team of architects from the American Institute of Architects to help guide development in the area. The AIA would conduct a Regional Urban Design Assistance Team study that would be used as a framework for the master plan for development on the harbor.
Nov. 2-6 is the target date for the R/UDAT to take place, said Terry Ammons, co-chairman of the Downtown Harbor Initiative. The cost of creating the R/UDAT would be about $55,000.
Dredging on the Appomattox River navigation channel is slated to begin in late 2007 and be completed in 2008.
The results from the survey may be found on the Petersburg Harbor Web site, http://www.petersburgharbor.org, within the week, Ammons said.
• T. DeVon Robinson may be reached at 722-5160.
