THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110294
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
The city's redevelopment authority has hired one of the nation's most renowned urban planning teams to design a new bayfront neighborhood out of a 90-acre redevelopment tract in East Ocean View.
On Monday, the agency agreed to pay $159,650 to a Miami-based architectural and planning firm headed by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who were chosen after a nationwide search produced 13 applicants.
The consultants are best known for Seaside, an 80-acre community near Pensacola, Fla., that revives many traditions of small-town America.
``We were impressed with that and that's what we really wanted to do,'' said Dennis Richardson, director of design and engineering for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The redevelopment agency will buy and demolish almost all the property in the 90-acre tract, which is generally east of Shore Drive.
The redevelopment authority does not necessarily want a replication of Seaside, Richardson said. The goal, he said, is to achieve a neighborhood that fosters an internal sense of community but also complements and helps revive neighboring areas.
``One of the things I liked about them was that they understood the bigger picture, that theywere designing something that could spread throughout the rest of East Ocean View and possibly all of Ocean View,'' said James Janata, president of the East Ocean View Civic League.
Janata was one of three Ocean View residents on the city's selection committee. He predicted that the 90-acre project will win national attention now that Duany and Plater-Zyberk are involved.
Another committee member, Barry Strathmann, who lives in the redevelopment section, said he was impressed with the consultants' approach, which blends traditional neighborhood concepts with a creativity and a willingness to listen to community ideas.
Duany and Plater-Zyberk's work will include a weeklong series of meetings in the neighborhood with Norfolk officials, community residents and businessmen, a brainstorming process known as a ``charette.''
The charette will be in early December and will be open to the public, said David H. Rice, executive director of the redevelopment authority.
The agency has not established how many homes will be developed or the price range. Those answers will be supplied by Duany and Plater-Zyberk, who have about four months to complete a master development plan.
The assignment includes a marketing analysis that will be handled by a New Jersey company, Zimmerman and Associates, which has worked with Duany and Plater-Zyberk on other projects.
However, Rice said Norfolk still intends to develop a new neighborhood that will attract a mix of income groups. City Councilman Mason C. Andrews established that goal last year when he was mayor.
``That's still a given,'' Rice said Monday. ``The style of what they do supports that kind of thinking.''
Norfolk has long pondered how to revive East Ocean View, a section that contains some of the city's worst blight despite its prime location on the Chesapeake Bay.
The future of the 90-acre tract was hotly debated last year after the city targeted the property for redevelopment.
Many residents accused the city of using the redevelopment process to push out poor and middle-income families to help the rich.
Norfolk officials said they had tried unsuccessfully to revitalize the tract through other means, such as low-rate home-improvement loans and community policing. But the neighborhood was too far gone to be saved, they said.
Last year, the neighborhood consisted of about 1,500 homes, including many apartments. About 1,100 units were occupied. Only 16 families lived in houses they owned.
The redevelopment authority has spent nearly $4.5 million buying 47 properties in the 90-acre tract, although some purchases were made before 1993 under the former housing conservation program.
The purchases and demolitions resulted in the moving of 47 households. The redevelopment agency does not know how many other families remain in the 90 acres. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The team hired to develop 90 acres in Norfolk is best known for
Seaside, an 80-acre community near Pensacola, Fla.
Staff map
East Ocean View
Redevelopment area
For copy of map, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY
EAST OCEAN VIEW
by CNB