Envisioned in the
Resort Area Strategic Action Plan (RASAP), the Laskin Road Gateway project has transformed the area surrounding 31st Street and the Oceanfront into an exciting people-gathering place featuring upscale shops, restaurants, hotels and residential buildings – all in a pedestrian-oriented setting. This inviting activity-oriented atmosphere provides the local community, retail customers, hotel guests and other visitors a delightful place to gather, dine, shop, live, work or play in a lively high-quality environment.
The Laskin Road Gateway project provided new water and sewer lines, upgraded traffic systems, burial of overhead utilities, new sidewalks and streetscapes to the eastern end of Laskin Road. To reduce congestion throughout the Laskin Gateway, the project also realigned the traffic pattern to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety. A roundabout on Laskin Road reroutes traffic to 30th and 32nd streets so that Laskin Road could become a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare with two lanes of traffic and parallel parking along both sides of the street. Meanwhile, 30th Street features two lanes leading into the resort area and one lane westbound, while 32nd Street has two lanes westbound and one lane leading toward the beach.
The improved infrastructure supports 31 Ocean, a $60 million private development designed to foster a live-and-work environment that includes upscale retail, structured parking, apartments, and class A office spaces.
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What the Laskin Road Gateway is...
With direct access to the oceanfront along Laskin Road, this key gateway district is the Resort Area’s best location for a concentration of high-end retail that diversifies the retail offerings for tourists and locals alike.
The district was studied and detailed in the
Resort Area Strategic Action Plan, which was adopted by the Virginia Beach City Council on Dec. 2, 2008. The plan envisions a corridor with a coordinated transportation and retail strategy that gets people out of their cars and on foot in a village-like setting. Development is sensitively scaled to the needs of adjacent neighborhoods, and mixes new residential opportunities with active street level retail uses that front on widened sidewalks to accommodate pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining. New development is reinforced by an open space system that combines streetscape improvements with strategically located green space, including a planned "circle" marking the arrival of the Laskin Gateway corridor to the beach.
Funded for $28.4 million of road, streetscape, landscaping and utility improvements, the Laskin Road Gateway project has delivered significant improvements to traffic flow and capacity featuring a two-way pair of 30th and 32nd streets.
What the Laskin Road Gateway is not...
A pedestrian mall
One-way traffic system
A grant to developers
Why should the city use public funds for this project?
Through a basic public-private partnership, we enable the private sector to create higher levels of investment, and the public reaps the benefits of that effort through increased tax revenues and improved quality of life.
The Laskin Road Gateway project also produces economic vitality, creating wealth in increased commercial land values and capital investment in private infrastructure.
Some of the highlights of this plan are:
Total of four lanes eastbound and four lanes westbound when looking at the entire system (30th, 31st and 32nd streets).
Total of four left turn opportunities onto Pacific Avenue traveling north, including 30th Street (1), 31st Street (1), and 32nd Street (2).
On-street parking has been removed from 32nd Street to allow for an additional left turn onto Pacific Avenue; and, a right turn into the parking garage.
Pinewood Road is aligned at a 90 degree angle to 32nd Street, which discourages traffic movement to Pinewood from 32nd Street.