Minutes 11/11/1969 - Laserfiche WebLink

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"A RHSOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE POLICY FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH ;~D DESIGNATING THE INDUSTRIAL DE¥~LOP~NT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF PORTSMOD~H AS THE COORDINATING AGENCY THEREFOR ~%~EP~AS, improvement of the economic future of the City is dependent upon industrial development; and WHEREAS, there are several agencies in the City, both public and private, engaged in industrial develop- ment; and I~REAS, in order to secure optinum industrial development there should be coordination of the efforts of all these agencies. NOW, THEREFOFJ~, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia: 1. That in order to secure the more orderly, industrial development of the City, the Industrial Develop- ment Authority of the City of Portsmouth is hereby designated as the coordinating agency for industrial devel- opment. 2. The duties and responsibilities hereinafter set forth are assigned to the fo½~ing agencies: a. Industrial Authority of the City of Portsmouth [1) Supervise and coordinate industrial development activity within the city. (2) Keep the City Council informed of such activity. (3) Coordinate news ~eleases and statements of such activity from cooperating agencies. (4) Approve industrial development budgets of cooperating agencies. (S) Perform. such other duties as may be imposed upon it by law. b. Portsmouth Port and Industrial Commission~ (1) Be responsible for port development, traffic procurement, and back-no warehousing. (2) Coordinate plans with the Virginia State Ports Authority. Report monthly on its development activity to the Industrial Development Authority. Perform such other duties as may be imposed upon it by law. c. Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce (1) Be responsible for industrial and commercial development. [2) Seek prospects for industrial and commercial development in the city. (S) Act as liaison with various agencies. (4) Renort monthly on its development activity to the Industrial Development Authority. d. Portsmouth Industrial Foundation (1) Arrange for private financing of prospective developers. (2) Report regularly on it~ activity to the Industrial Development Authority." 69-561 - "At the last meeting of the City Council, it was requested that I investigate the possibility of adding an additional lane on High Street west between the Churchland Bridge and Cedar Lane. I was requested to ascertain if there were any funds available in the street maintenance budget that could be used for this pro- ject. Before reporting on the financing of this project, I would like to bring some facts to the attention of the Cit~ ~ouncil. The traffic problems on High Street west (Route 17) are caused by two things -- (1) there is only one lane eastbound on High Street from Churchland High S~nool to the bridge, [2) there is only one lane eastbound on the Churchland Bridge. ~ne majority of the backup in traffic can be atributed to having only ~ne lane eastbound on Route 17. One slow-moving vehicle causes all traffic to bottleneck as no one can pass; therefore, by the time traffic has traveled from the High School to the bridge, everyone is bumper to bumper. This frequently happens all during the day due to tractors, buses, trash trucks, and slow drivers. When this occurs during peak hours, the result is catastrophic. ~ additional lane would enable faster traffic to pass and not be bogged down in the procession of slower moving vehicles. The additional lane would free the traffic by dispersing it and not all~ one vehicle to set the pace and control the movement. THe addition of sm. extra lane will not solve all the probtem~. You cannot talk about a completely free movement of traffic or completely eliminating traffic ja~s~when two lanes will be re&uired to me~ge into one at the bridge. During times of accidents or unusually heavy volumes of traffic, there ~ill be congestion at the bridge. However, as pointed out by the Traffic Engineer, traffic will be more dispersed and congestion and back~ up will occur only occasionally rather than every day ms is now the rule. A correlation~exists on the east sidet of the bridge where we have t~o lanes running into one~ further complicated by the fact that traffic is coming from two directions -- Western Branch Boulevard and High Street. The ideal solution is another bridge with two lanes ~oproaching from each direction. However, an addition- al lane on Route 17 is the most sensible and economical answer in the face of the cost of an additional bridge and impending highway development (the Western Freeway and West Norfolk Bridge). An additional lane between the Churchland Higjl School and the Churchl~nd Bridge could eliminate over '50% of the congestion and eliminate