[music] Paul Holt: Almost a decade ago the people of this city
created a vision for its future. They envisioned the city to be a vibrant, mixed use, sustainable
community where folks could live, work, and play. Destination Portsmouth is the next step
in the realization of that vision. Portsmouth has successfully done what thousands of communities
across the U.S. are hoping to do; a full rewrite of our land use regulations that allow for
our city to implement our communities vision; a vision of smarter, more sustainable growth.
Kenneth Chandler: When I think of one person who will benefit from the foundational elements
of Destination Portsmouth it really makes me think of 95,000 citizens because when you
think about the ability to have sustainable, livable development in your community just
by changing some of your regulations it's to the benefit of all. Paul Holt: By rezoning
the entire city Destination Portsmouth gives residents a choice on where to build their
homes, and allows them to connect back to our downtown corridor. People can now choose
to build their homes on vacant lots like these and in neighborhoods that are within walking
distance to schools, amenities, and downtown businesses rather than being forced to build
out in the suburbs. Kenneth Chandler: The code really established a new foundation for
the city. Paul Holt: One of the biggest areas of the city where we hope the Destination
Portsmouth codes will make a big difference are here on London
Boulevard which is currently a commercial corridor and a limited access highway. The
new codes will have developers add in street trees, pedestrian scale lighting, and new
bike lanes so when near future residential development begins it will transform this
area into a mixed use livable portion of the city that has a lot of connectivity to our
existing urban fabric. Kenneth Chandler: So it becomes extremely exciting, again, for
the sustainable development piece to attract more people to that general area. You know,
it's the things that really help crime go down because you have a presence of people.
Paul Holt: So I'm here on High Street and a couple of the great things that
we hope to see in the near future under the Destination Portsmouth framework include all
new infill redevelopment consisting of mixed use buildings that have residential dwelling
units, office space, and all new commercial and for a multi-modal corridor we hope to
have bike lanes along all of the streets and even in the near future some mass transit.
Kenneth Chandler: Where somebody now has the opportunity to, kind of, associate with where
they work. Actually live above, you know, where they eat their dinner and then they
can actually walk their dog that evening, you know, down the same street and really
bring life to the street that normally was closed about 6:00 in the evening. Paul Holt:
Coming from our industrial past, one of our greatest opportunities now is going to be
our waterfront. The codes work to preserve the Chesapeake Bay by reducing storm water
runoff and enhancing water quality by eliminating large surface parking lots and by promoting
low impact development solutions to prevent pollution from going back into the waterways.
We are now, instead of turning our backs to the river, we are now able to use those for
some real high quality, premium areas for redevelopment that most other cities don't
have as a natural feature. Kenneth Chandler: You know, with the military presence that
we have here; the coast guard, the navy, one of the older naval shipyards here as well,
it really has created an opportunity for folks to be able to live, work, and play here. Paul
Holt: So the destination Portsmouth plans absolutely represent a huge leap forward in
offering our existing residents and new residents choices that they didn't have before to come
live back downtown, to come live back in old historic neighborhoods, and these new residential
homes coupled with improvements we're making along city streets are going to allow folks
to make those living choices they didn't have as an option before. [music] [end of transcript]