City presents One City, One Future 2045 draft; council presses housing alignment with land‑use map

The Planning Department presented a draft of One City, One Future 2045, an update to Newport News’s comprehensive plan required by the Code of Virginia, describing extensive public outreach and updated future land‑use and transportation maps.

"This update launched in 2024," Regina Jensen, senior planning staff, told the council, and staff emphasized that the plan is a long‑range guide, publicly available in libraries and online with an interactive PDF. Jensen said staff conducted 28 stakeholder meetings, 12 public workshops and three open houses, and found the vision and themes from the 2040 plan remain broadly supported.

Council members focused their questions on how the future land‑use map will help the city meet housing needs identified in a recent housing study. "We had to replace 17,000 homes and build 4,000 new," Councilman Long said, asking how office‑to‑residential conversions and amendments would move the city toward those targets. Planning and zoning staff responded that the plan is amendable, that conversions of office properties to medium‑density residential are recommended in places, and that text amendments and rezoning requests can be pursued without a full plan rewrite when targeted changes are appropriate.

Naoka Hall, the zoning administrator, offered to provide additional technical detail and staff said they can run analyses to show how proposed conversions would affect housing targets. Jensen noted that maps are intentionally broad guidance and do not regulate parcels but instead inform capital investments, rezoning decisions and infrastructure planning.

Staff said a public hearing on the draft is tentatively scheduled for July 14; after public comment and any revisions, the plan would be finalized in print and interactive digital formats. Council members asked staff to return with more granular mapping or examples showing where office conversions would yield housing units and to run numbers that align the land‑use proposals with the housing shortfall.

What happens next: staff will collect public comments, prepare final materials for the July public hearing, and provide council with additional analysis showing potential office‑to‑residential conversions and their projected contribution to the city’s housing goals.