The Lambert's Point City Park Steering Committee is a grassroots citizen group supporting the positive future of
Lambert's Point City Park, your public open space overlooking the Elizabeth River in Norfolk.
Image by VIA Design, a local architecture and landscape architecture firm that has partnered with the
City of Norfolk on the future of the Lambert's Point parcel. https://www.norfolk.gov/5603/Lamberts-Point-Plan
History
The City of Norfolk operated the site as a landfill from the 1940s to 1980. The City opened a public golf course on the site in 2005. On the map above, the area with the turquoise buildings surrounded by a black dashed line is the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, the HRSD. In 2018, the City of Norfolk and the HRSD formalized the sale of the majority of the Lambert’s Point Golf Course—over 40 acres—for an expansion of the HRSD Wastewater Treatment Plant and the development of a groundwater recharge project, seen in yellow on the map. In 2022, the golf course closed, and the HRSD took possession of the property in early 2023. The new HRSD land included the highest ground in the City of Norfolk with some of the most spectacular views, including a glimpse of the downtown skyline and the best vista of the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth. The public also lost a lovely creek view from an existing footbridge.
While this transaction was not universally applauded, the City had the foresight to set aside land for public access to the
shoreline, seen in brown on the map. This 125-foot wide easement is over ½ mile long. It is widely hoped that this public access strip will become part of the Elizabeth River Trail and will link up with the existing trail seen here as a green dashed line.
The 15-acre parcel still owned by the City, seen in green on the map, has some waterfront land on a charming bay. Much of the waterfront property on the rest of the bay is owned by Old Dominion University (ODU). The ODU Sailing Center, ODU Boathouse, and the ODU Challenge Course (formerly Whitehurst Beach Park) all enjoy waterfront placement and are visible from the parcel. Also visible from the remaining parcel is the Virginia Port Authority and the Hermitage Museum, across the Lafayette River in the Lochhaven neighborhood. The remaining 15 acre parcel is a jewel with some of the best publicly available views the City has to offer. It must be saved from privatization. It’s not too late!
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Lambert’s Point City Park Steering Committee
In May 2023 an online petition was launched to save what's left of the Lambert’s Point Golf Course for use as a City Park. Today, the petitions as well as face-to-face efforts, have amassed well over 5,000 signatures—and counting!
This coalesced into the formation of the Lambert’s Point City Park Steering Committee. On August 9, 2023, the City of Norfolk hosted a forum at the Lambert's Point Community Center. Between 300 to 400 people showed up, the vast majority wearing green ribbons to show their support for Lambert’s Point City Park.
City of Norfolk hosted forum, Lambert's Point Community Center (August 9, 2023)
The City also sought citizen input through an online survey, the results of which were unveiled at the forum. The survey revealed overwhelming support for three overlapping categories: "park," "green space," and "park & greenspace." Almost every other category listed consisted of features often found in municipal parks, such as bike paths, playgrounds, and dog parks.
Image by VIA Design, a local architecture and landscape architecture firm that has partnered with the City of Norfolk
on the future of the Lambert's Point parcel and the KBD Group, a local public relations agency.
Additional data and studies highlight the fact that Norfolk is underserved when it comes to parks and green space. Norfolk is the third largest Hampton Roads city by population, yet it is the third smallest in area. This gives Norfolk the highest population density. Cities with higher population densities ought to have a higher percentage of parks and greenspace, but that’s not the case in Norfolk. Only 5% of Norfolk’s land is parkland. According to Trust for Public Land, that is well below the national average. Compare Norfolk's 5% to that of Virginia Beach, which has 17% parkland, or Chesapeake, which has 27%. Additionally, it appears that the City of Norfolk is counting school playgrounds, graveyards, and the Norfolk Botanical Garden as part of the 5% figure--so free public parkland is significantly less than 5%.
As Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, Founding Director of the Elizabeth River Project has written, “Multiple studies demonstrate that public parks increase quality of life and improve mental health and wellness for residents while reducing crime, increasing nearby property values and conserving clean water and wildlife habitat.”
The Norfolk Parks & Recreation 2022 Master Plan (page 9) contains the following stated goal: "Add park acreage to the system for neighborhood parks, community parks, and school park sites to ensure the level of service as the population grows..." The City’s Lambert’s Point Plan website also states the following: “this is some of the last public waterfront property.” But if this land is privatized, it will be lost forever. We can’t let that happen.
In early April 2024, the City of Norfolk posted the following:
"Effective April 8, 2024, the City-owned portion of the former Lambert’s Point Golf Course will be designated, with signage, as open space within the hours of sunrise to sunset. Signage will be posted to provide the general governing rules applicable to this open space, including no trespassing after posted hours."
Lambert's Point Open Space, the official name of the remaining parcel of the former Lambert’s Point Golf Course, is now officially open to the public. You can help make sure that this spectacular parcel of land remains publicly available to everyone, leaving a legacy for generations to come. Join us!
Lambert’s Point City Park Steering Committee
Brian N. Friedman, Chair
Elizabeth Dowgiello, Vice Chair