Virginia Beach:  Making the Most of the Millennium
(from The Virginian-Pilot, February 22, 1999)

   Virginia Beach City Council and Planners have a dream.  It's one where roads are designed as part of a community rather than as just something to move people through it.  If the plan succeeds, Beach residents could have a prettier city, and Virginians could have a scenic byway to rival the Peninsula's Colonial Parkway.  But the plan involves much more than beautiful landscaping alongside thoroughfares and in medians.
   The plan involves turning major roads into gateways that point travelers to various parts of the city like the Oceanfront, or the Princess Anne area where the Amphitheater, Sportsplex and Tournament Players Club golf course are located.
   It includes roads designed to be pleasant to drive on, where people are only allowed to exit and enter at certain points, instead of from random streets and driveways.
   More than a decade ago resort leaders began a campaign to rid the Oceanfront of garish signs and spent at least $60 million to improve the way Atlantic Avenue looked.  Among the changes the City made were buried power lines and extensive landscaping.  While it was a long haul, the project met with resounding success.
   Perhaps the most ambitious part of the future plan is the design of the Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt.  The City paid consulting firm EDAW, Inc. of Alexandria about $400,000 just to develop a report on the aesthetics for the $358 million project.  The firm's specific instructions were to design a road that would not look like Route 44, a typical divided highway where greenery and nature are about as abundant as snow in Florida.
   City officials said they would designate about 10 percent of the road's total cost for scenic extras, such as brick bridges, wider medians, lakes, rustic guard rails that blend into the background, and land for open fields and woods alongside the road.  The parkway would still have such utilitarian features as a 55 mile an hour speed limit and four lanes.
   EDAW is also helping the City develop a plan for the Princess Anne Road corridor, leading into the Municipal Center.  City Manager James K. Spore said the plan will be spectacular when completed.  "We are looking for enduring quality," Planning Director Robert J. Scott said.  "That means that we want things to look good for a long period of time."