THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412210160
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUDITH PARKER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
For more than three years, residents of the tiny, predominantly black Hattonsville community have fought the proposed construction of a $59 million, 875-bed regional jail on a 40-acre site abutting the eastern edge of their neighborhood.
Their fight appears to be over.
At a news conference Tuesday, city officials formally announced a compromise involving improvements to the neighborhood.
Assistant City Manager C. W. ``Luke'' McCoy estimated the cost to the city at $35,000. Funding will come from a combination of grants, city funds and housing authority funds, he said.
The settlement includes upgrading the community's drainage system, installation of additional street lighting, construction of a mini-park, landscaping within the development and along its entrance at Laigh Road and Airline Boulevard, and an assurance that no subsidized housing will be built near the neighborhood. Residents also may change the name of the approximately 130-year-old neighborhood, if they desire. Hattonsville originally was settled by freed slaves after the Civil War.
The jail, which will house prisoners from Portsmouth, Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News, is expected to open in 1997 and will employ approximately 300 people. Portsmouth will receive $2 million from the sale of the site to the Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority, and for the next 20 years it will receive a total of $250,000 from each of the other localities in lieu of real estate taxes on the property and facility. by CNB