THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 26, 1994 TAG: 9408250175
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
Nature, North Carolina and the Navy have yanked the city's chain on development.
Lack of an adequate permanent water source, thanks less to nature than to our neighboring state's nastiness regarding the Gaston pipeline, has begun to bite into major subdivision development. And to give the Base Realignment and Closure Commission one less excuse to close Oceana Naval Air Station, City Council approved on Tuesday noise zone and abatement measures that will keep residential and commercial development from (further) encroaching on base activities.
How much economic impact these drags on development will have is debatable. Developers can still build, though not the intense and tense development of before. That will cost jobs in construction and related industries, and some revenue to the city as land assessments decline. But however much their impact, closing Oceana, the city's largest employer, would have more.
Plus, a yank on development that helps keep the city's southern half from repeating mistakes in the northern half can't be all bad. The city will need to remember that, come the first turn of the Gaston tap. by CNB