THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409100098
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
The city has decided to plunk a cluster of municipal services on a four-block site between the Pavilion on 19th Street and 17th Street.
The project, along with the proposed clearing of the pink Sea Escape hotel at 17th Street and the Oceanfront, marks the beginning of overall efforts to dress up one of the main access routes to the beach.
David Grochmal, director of General Services, said the city had selected property five blocks west of the Oceanfront - between Cypress and Washington avenues and 17th and 19th streets - to house a slew of existing Beach Borough services.
These include a fire station, 2nd Police Precinct, Rescue Squad and Emergency Services headquarters, branch office for the City Treasurer and a public library.
The city has been planning since 1987 to relocate these services, which are housed in aging buildings adjoining the Dome property between 19th and 18th streets, Grochmal told members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission on Thursday.
The tract, measuring roughly four acres, would include a parking lot for 450 cars - including 100 city vehicles - and a 1 1/4-acre holding pond for storm water drainage.
Thomas Kyrus, commission vice chairman, questioned the wisdom of placing the library and the treasurer's office in the same complex with the police precinct.
``If parents bring their kids to the library, are we going to expose them to what's going on at the police station?'' he asked.
``They would be farther apart than they are now,'' observed commissioner Eric Schwartz, noting that the existing services are currently less than half a block apart.
The cost of the municipal service center would be an estimated $10 million, excluding the library construction, the advisory commission was told.
Planning consultant Timothy Barrow, former commission chairman, said the service center plans would fit in with general development plans for both 17th Street and for the expansion of the nearby Pavilion Convention Center.
``There's a potential there for future shared development,'' he said.
The transfer of the multiple city functions into a complex dubbed the ``Beach Borough Service Center'' has been in the planning stages since 1987.
It was put on hold due to a recession-induced budget crunch, now in its fifth year.
Grochmal told members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission that construction of the services center is to start sometime in 1997. by CNB