DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170473

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   68 lines

NORFOLK NEEDS UPSCALE HOUSING, COUNCIL TOLD

Along with attracting new business and creating jobs, the city's economic development efforts may soon include another goal: To encourage the construction of more upscale housing.

Rod Woolard, the city's director of Development, told the City Council Tuesday that Norfolk needs to consider a policy of building higher quality housing to lure the business executives who now work in Norfolk but head home to the suburbs.

The city, he said, needs to aggressively market itself to attract upwardly mobile professionals and entrepreneurs who might be inclined toward an urban lifestyle.

``It's something that's becoming more in vogue again, if you will, and I think we should try to tap that,'' he said.

The issue involves economics, including ongoing efforts to expand the city's tax base, as well as quality of life questions.

Currently, Woolard said, the city is creating more wealth than it is capturing. For example, while jobs in Norfolk produce an average weekly wage of $548, the highest in the region, the city's per capita and median family income are the lowest. That's because more than half of the 230,000-plus jobs in the city are held by people who live in neighboring communities.

Also, other businesses with higher-paying jobs are locating elsewhere because Norfolk lacks a large enough housing stock viewed as suitable for the companies' executives, Woolard said.

``Wealth is leaving our city in terms of jobs and commuting workers,'' he said.

For council members, the issue of housing is politically and racially charged. The city has the region's largest percentage of people living below the federal poverty level, at 19 percent compared to 11 percent percent regionwide.

Council members made clear that efforts to build more upscale housing should not be viewed as an attempt to force out poor people.

``I wouldn't want the message to go out that the city has embarked on a policy to gentrify the city,'' Mayor Paul D. Fraim said. ``One of our strengths in this city is diversity. What we are seeking in our policy is a balance in the scales of our housing.''

Currently, only 5 percent of homes in Norfolk are valued at $200,000 or above. On the other hand, nearly 60 percent of homes are valued at less than $80,000.

Council members said that the city has enough affordable housing, in part the result of past efforts to ensure that lower-income families had roofs over their heads. The city has met its target of setting aside about 12 percent of its housing stock for subsidized housing, including public housing, Councilman G. Conoly Phillips said.

Phillips said the city has pushed for upscale housing in several recent redevelopment projects, including Pinewell-By-The-Bay in Ocean View, Lafayette Shores and Stonebridge Crossing. But the council has never adopted a formal policy supporting the notion.

``We've never had it on the table,'' he said. ``I think we need to formally shift that policy.''

Councilman W. Randy Wright agreed. He said the first two homes that will be built in the East Ocean View redevelopment area will each carry a total value of more than a half-million dollars.

``We ought to use this to set the tone of where we want to go,'' Wright said. ``We've got to set our sights higher. In my mind we ought to be communicating this right now to the real estate industry.''

Councilman Mason Andrews said the city needs to work with other cities in the region to address housing issues and to help share in the costs of solving problems associated with the inner-city - helping the disadvantaged, addressing educational needs and capping crime. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL

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