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Newport News unveils draft '1 City 1 Future 2045' comprehensive plan; public hearing tentatively set for July 14
Summary
Planning staff presented the draft 2045 comprehensive plan update, citing extensive public outreach and interactive online maps; council members pressed staff on whether office‑to‑residential conversions and map changes will achieve the city’s housing targets.
City planning staff presented a draft update to Newport News’ comprehensive plan on June 23, describing an outreach process and updated future land‑use and transportation maps and scheduling a tentative council public hearing for July 14.
"This update, the 1 City 1 Future 2045 comprehensive plan, also provides us with an opportunity to streamline, refresh the 2018 document to reflect the priorities of our citizens today," Regina Jensen of the Department of Planning told council. She said the update included 28 stakeholder meetings, 12 public workshops and three open houses and that the interactive plan will be available online and in libraries.
Jensen explained the plan’s structure—city profile, "what we heard," goals, future land use and an implementation chapter—and said staff updated the future land use and transportation maps to reflect planning opportunity areas and prior plans such as Denbigh‑Warwick. She said the future land use map is intentionally broad and does not regulate parcels but guides investments, rezoning and infrastructure decisions.
Council members pressed staff on housing goals identified in a separate housing study (an estimated need to replace 17,000 homes and add 4,000 new units). Councilman Long said he worried the largely unchanged land use map may not deliver the housing capacity required in 25 years and asked staff to analyze how office‑to‑residential conversions and other changes would affect the city’s housing targets.
Staff said the comprehensive plan is a living document that can be amended and that targeted plan amendments and rezoning requests are typical paths to accommodate changing needs. Jensen and staff offered to run conversions and development scenarios and return with more detailed analysis for council consideration.
The planning department indicated it will bring the draft to a public hearing tentatively scheduled for July 14 and then begin final production for both print and an interactive PDF version if no substantive changes are required.
