Activity Centers
What are Activity Centers?
Activity centers are focal points for community life and business, providing employment, shopping, services, schools, recreation,
social interaction, learning, culture and places of worship. Activity centers have different sizes, functions, and character.
Their mix of uses, composition and size will vary depending on the size of their service areas. Activity centers are places
where citizens can interact in the public realm when going about their daily activities.
Along with its many quality, stable residential neighborhoods, Newport News has growing, successful employment and business
centers at Oyster Point (including City Center), Patrick Henry Mall, and Oakland Industrial Park. The downtown Maritime Center
is undergoing renewal. Careful planning is needed to keep these centers viable and attractive. Likewise, some of the City's
older commercial centers, such as Newmarket and North Denbigh corridor, need plans for their renewal. The Warwick Boulevard Corridor Study specified much needed improvements for the north Denbigh area. The Study’s goals and strategies should be implemented. A
similar study should be prepared for the Newmarket area and the Jefferson Avenue corridor below J. Clyde Morris Boulevard.
Activity Centers are preferred over strip commercial development. Strip commercial development interferes with traffic flow
because of multiple turning movements from driveways and curb cuts and contributes to visual chaos with multiple freestanding
business signs, overhead wires, minimal landscaping, ugly buildings and large stretches of pavement and parking lots. The
past practices of strip commercial zoning has resulted in an imbalance of retail zoned property in the City. To remedy this
imbalance, the City must concentrate commercial uses in well-designed activity centers, which can accomplish a number of community
goals. A well-landscaped and carefully designed commercial center serves as a community landmark. Concentrating a mix of
activities in pedestrian oriented centers creates opportunities for transit ridership, makes shopping more convenient, and
provides a desirable location for higher-density housing. These activity centers, when linked together by landscaped boulevards
and thoroughfares, will provide definition and form to the City.
To accommodate this type of development, the City has revised its site plan ordinance and has been successful in concentrating
major new retail development into centers along the Jefferson Avenue corridor between Oyster Point Road and Denbigh Boulevard.
The Jefferson Center for Research and Technology and Oyster Point are becoming high amenity employment centers for business
and science. A mixed use town center (City Center) providing retail, entertainment, offices and housing is being realized
at the Oyster Point Core. A cultural center know as “Avenue of the Arts” is forming at J. Clyde Morris Boulevard’s intersection
with Warwick Boulevard that includes the Mariners' Museum, the Virginia Living Museum, the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Christopher
Newport University, and the Ferguson Performing Arts Center.
The Framework for the Future recommends four types of centers for the City, they are: neighborhood, community, regional, and employment centers. The first
three are mixed use areas providing a variety of functions. An example of a neighborhood center is the commercial area of
Hilton Village. A typical community center is the Hidenwood business area. Regional centers are large commercial and business
concentrations. The Patrick Henry Mall area, the downtown Maritime Center and Oyster Point are examples of regional centers.
Employment centers are locations for industry, research and development. Examples of employment centers are the Seafood Industrial
Park, Oakland Industrial Park, and the Jefferson Center for Research and Technology.
The plan recommends the creation of new types of centers--transit oriented developments. Transit Oriented Developments are
mixed use centers built around future light rail transit stops. These centers would generate higher density, mixed use, pedestrian
oriented environments within 1/2 mile of transit stations. Within Transit Oriented Developments are high density housing,
offices, retail, entertainment, culture, and other compatible uses that can be developed within walking distance of designated
light rail stations. However, not all light rail stations will be suitable for transit oriented development. The sites that
are most appropriate for this type of development are identified on the land use plan.
The centers are described in more depth in Chapter 14, The Land Use Plan.
Activity Center Plans
Master plans should be completed for activity centers facing redevelopment pressure in the near future and the areas recommended for transit oriented development. These plans will analyze existing conditions, infrastructure, markets, accessibility, land use mix, and visual character. They will recommend land use, transportation, circulation, capital improvements, zoning, site and building design, incentives and amenities. In the past, plans have been prepared for Lee Hall, Hilton Village, the Jefferson Center for Science and Technology, Patrick Henry Commerce Center, City Center, and the LDR Maritime Center Plan for the Downtown Regional Business District. These master plans were prepared with cooperation and input from private property owners, merchants and residents of adjoining neighborhoods. Priority for completion of future activity center plans should be given for the creation of a mixed use center in Denbigh (in vicinity of Denbigh Boulevard’s intersection with Warwick Boulevard), areas around Interstate interchanges, and the areas recommended for Transit Oriented Development.