DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9709010067

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: FAIRFAX                           LENGTH:   46 lines

FORMER HAMPTON CITY MANAGER LOOKS TO FIX FAIRFAX ``I DON'T THINK IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO SAY WE ARE GOING TO WRITE OFF A SECTION OF THE COUNTY.''

Fairfax County's older neighborhoods near the Capital Beltway are on the verge of a decline that the local government must attack to avoid more costly and complex urban ills, said Robert J. O'Neill Jr., the new county executive.

``I don't think it is acceptable to say we are going to write off a section of the county and watch it deteriorate,'' said O'Neill, who came to Fairfax on Aug. 4 after 13 years as Hampton city manager. ``We have a stake in making sure that these older neighborhoods never get so bad that people start to abandon them.''

O'Neill's assessment comes after spending four weeks touring Fairfax. He is preparing an agenda for the management of the region, which has a population of 920,000.

Revitalizing older commercial centers in neighborhoods such as Annandale, Springfield and Baileys Crossroads will be among his top priorities, O'Neill said.

Some of those centers suffer from rundown or vacant buildings, a lack of new investment and a declining customer base. Left alone, officials fear, such decay could send those areas and the surrounding neighborhoods into a spiral of crime and poverty.

``The county is well-positioned to avoid the kind of deterioration that has been seen in other parts of urban America,'' O'Neill said. ``But we must act soon.''

O'Neill said he will consider a range of options for helping the inner suburbs redevelop. The county could provide incentives to developers by allowing denser construction or could play a more extensive role by buying up land in an area and reselling it to developers to rebuild an entire neighborhood.

In Hampton, O'Neill was involved in several extensive redevelopment projects, including the rebuilding of the rundown Chesapeake Bay waterfront that now boasts a high-rise hotel, office building and the Virginia Air and Space Museum.

Fairfax, O'Neill said, is in a better position than Hampton to undertake such projects because the county's economy is stronger, meaning private developers likely will be more willing to do the work on their own, with just a little nudging from the local government.

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