THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408150012
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
More than 60 people came to a waterfront restaurant Saturday morning for what they hoped was the birth of a new city from an old community: the city of Ocean View.
Much of Norfolk's establishment says it's a fantasy. Many question whether it's legal. The logistics of creating a new city are staggering.
Still, all that is making this band of proud seaside dwellers stick their chins out a little farther and say, ``Watch us.''
Since July 4, when weekly-newspaper publisher James Dozier and local politician Michael Bond released their ``Declaration of Independence,'' the movement in Ocean View to secede from Norfolk has been slowly gathering itself. Leaders say they have resisted the impulse to move more quickly and risk driving expectations too high.
They are running their petitions by lawyers before they begin gathering signatures in September.
On Saturday, secession supporters released a map of the proposed city of Ocean View and outlined a few of their ideas for running it.
The meeting at Piranha's restaurant on Shore Drive was the first public gathering. It drew plenty of already-disgruntled city residents, some small-business owners and a handful of opponents, including City Councilman Randy Wright.
Wright did not speak to the group. He has called the secession notion ``sour grapes'' from Bond, who ran against Wright for City Council and lost.
Bond was the main speaker Saturday. He praised Wright for being willing to listen to the secessionists.
The details Bond released about his group's plan included:
The city of Ocean View would contain about 80,000 people and reach down to include Wards Corner and Military Circle, strengthening its commercial tax base.
It's government would have a mayor, a city council and a city manager, but would put more power in the mayor's hands than most Virginia cities do now. The mayor also would be directly elected.
Some services, such as garbage collection, might be handled by private contract rather than city employees to avoid building a large payroll and bureaucracy.
Much of the pitch from Bond, Dozier and their allies was anti-downtown, playing on the resentment many Ocean View residents have long felt toward City Hall.
``It's like the Rock of Gibraltar downtown,'' Bond said.
``They've made their decision about the direction they're taking the city, and that's it. You can't change them.
``The concentration of political and economic power into the hands of a few is going to continue until someone does something about it.''
Bond said he would not seek elected office in the new city if it is created.
The method supporters plan to use is ``initiative and referendum'': collecting enough signatures from registered voters to require the City Council either to act on the secession or schedule a public referendum.
It is the same method Wright himself used in the Little Creek area earlier this year to prevent a church from building a new sanctuary. The issue never went to a referendum, but the council reversed its decision and the church was not built.
Carl Meredith, a civic league leader in the Lafayette-Winona area, likened the group's leaders to the founders of the United States.
``Yes, they were a little strange back then, but it takes a little strangeness to appreciate fully the benefits of liberty,'' he said.
Willard Longman, owner of the Sandbar Restaurant in Ocean View, said he came to the meeting because, ``We'd like to see Ocean View get a fair shake. It should be a prime, pristine area. It's got all the amenities.''
Wright maintains the city has not neglected Ocean View as much as Bond and Dozier have claimed. Wright released a statement recently that said the city has invested $44 million in Ocean View since 1990.
Secession supporters say the figure is closer to $14 million. The annual budget of the new city, they calculate, would be about $100 million. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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