THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410140292
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The city has yet to secure a site for a proposed 20,000-seat amphitheater that was to have attracted big time national entertainment to the city and a search may drag on for months.
That was the gist of a status report Thursday to the Resort Area Advisory Commission by Mark Wawner, project manager for the Virginia Beach Economic Department.
``There's a lot of things that have yet to be done,'' he said. ``We have not yet secured the site. We have not yet secured the conditional use permit for the site. We have not yet signed a lease with a private partner.''
The city is negotiating with a federal government agency for a 112-acre site, known as Princess Anne Commons, next to the Municipal Center. Wawner won't divulge the amount of the city's offer, but the City Council earlier this year allocated $500,000 to cover a bid deposit and study of wetlands and other environmental issues.
``We had hoped to get a site under construction by the fall (of 1994), but we have missed that opportunity,'' Wawner told commissioners. ``The tentative date for construction is 1995, with completion in 1996.''
Other neighboring cities also are moving toward developing an amphitheater, he said, which creates the need for haste in building the Virginia Beach entertainment complex.
Federal bureaucratic foot-dragging has prompted city officials to seek legislative help.
``We have wakened them up by getting some Congressional people involved and they're singing a little different tune here of late,'' said Wawner.
Wawner has been searching for over a year to nail down a site that would be accessible by major highways, yet far enough from residential populations and Oceana Naval Air Station flight paths to overcome most potential environmental, military and traffic obstacles.
A preferred site at Corporate Landing, a huge industrial-commercial tract bordering London Bridge Road and General Booth Boulevard, was ditched after the Navy said it was directly in the path of Oceana jet flight patterns.
The City Council may have thrown up another barrier by withholding blanket approval of Princess Anne Commons as the site for the amphitheater.
Councilman William W. Harrison, who attended the Thursday advisory commission meeting, said the council has approved the purchase of the site, but has yet to authorize its use for an amphitheater, should it be purchased.
``The City Council has not authorized the staff to acquire the site for an amphitheater,'' said Harrison. ``It has authorized the staff to acquire a site. And that is a significant problem, I think.''
Commissioner Lee Dupree said he learned through a telephone call Tuesday that a number of council members now are opposed to proceeding with the amphitheater.
``We had been led to believe - and we had endorsed it - that the only thing we were waiting for was the concrete to be poured,'' he said. ``So it comes back to us that unless some people on council decide that they are in favor of the amphitheater right now, we aren't any farther along than we were a year ago.''
Harrison took issue with Dupree's assessment of council's position.
Picking his words very carefully, he replied: ``I don't think you could say the council is committed to an amphitheater on this particular site. I'm not certain that they're committed against it. You couldn't say which way this council is leaning right now - whether for or against an amphitheater on this particular site.''
KEYWORDS: AMPHITHEATER VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL
by CNB