THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409280102
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The bureaucratic nightmare to impose a superhighway on Cedar Lane from West Norfolk Road to High Street appears to be over.
At an assembly of state and city officials last week, citizens were told that any improvements to the street would stay within the existing right of way. Previously, the plan was to install four to five lanes with sidewalks on each side, a plan that would have affected most of the homes abutting the street in some of the city's most solid neighborhoods.
The 70-foot-wide monstrosity was conceived prior to construction of the West Norfolk Freeway. When the freeway was built, residents of the Cedar Lane neighborhoods were under the impression the plans for their street were abandoned, no longer necessary because traffic was decreasing. Some vehicles formerly forced onto Cedar Lane were able to stay on the freeway, leaving the residential street to local traffic.
Then out of the blue, residents were summoned to an ``information meeting'' by state highway folks, who displayed engineering documents that would turn their quiet street into a 70-foot-wide swath of concrete reaching almost to their front doors.
Their subsequent protests brought assurances from the city that the road would not be built.
John Curran, whose home would have been affected drastically, said the neighborhoods from West Norfolk Road to High Street settled down, expecting the state simply to add turn lanes at major entrances into the neighborhoods on either side of Cedar Lane.
Then, one day he looked out a window to see a power company worker planting little red flags in his yard, a few feet from his home.
Again, residents were told the big road was coming. In addition, the city planned to put in underground utilities outside the right of way, which would destroy trees and forbid replanting in any of the yards along the road.
And, again, residents began raising questions. They got conflicting stories from every source. Yes, it still would be built. No, it wouldn't.
The city said it was concerned over having to pay the state for the engineering if the road weren't built, although paying half a million dollars for work undone might have been cheaper in the long run than ruining the property all along the road. A compromise was possible, the state said, but nothing seemed to happen.
Finally last week, all parties agreed to a compromise that will keep the road within the existing right of way. Our state taxes will pay for a lion's share of the planning and engineering, leaving our city taxes virtually untouched.
This incident seems like a classical case of government bumbling.
Apparently, the project never was called off by the city, although local officials control the use of state money allocated for local streets.
The state went ahead with the engineering and design. The city, which knew this was going on, let it happen. Even after the mayor promised residents some months ago that the project would be scaled down, somebody continued to proceed with the original plan.
The proposed superstreet would have gone nowhere on a road that has shown a dramatic decrease in traffic since the West Norfolk Freeway opened. It simply was not needed.
Certainly in a city with so little room for residential growth, we don't need to destroy the areas that seem to recycle from one family to the next over the years, continuing to increase in value.
If any residents come close to paying their way in taxes, those who do include the citizens who would have been severely affected by the proposed superstreet.
Many live in homes valued well above $100,000 and have no children in the public schools. Most of them have two or more vehicles on which they also pay property taxes.
They are the citizens who generally require less service from the city, a fact documented by Councilman Cameron Pitts in his fight to freeze tax assessments on senior citizens with frozen incomes.
Many residents in the neighborhoods along Cedar Lane are not even among the beneficiaries of the tax break. They don't use the jail, public health services or social services, among other things.
Fortunately, the Cedar Lane dispute is settled with a compromise that won't devastate the area.
It doesn't matter who pays for the planning and engineering. It's all coming out of the pockets of taxpayers anyway. MEMO: Whether you agree or disagree, The Currents would like to hear from you.
Send your thoughts to The Currents, 307 County St., Suite 100,
Portsmouth, Va. 23704-3702 or fax us at 446-2607.
by CNB