THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410250126
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS
SOURCE: MIKE KNEPLER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A Planning Commission tour of Berkley and Campostella last week prompted thoughts about how some Norfolk neighborhoods have so much in common.
Grand old homes converted to rooming houses. Complaints about property code enforcement. Boarded up buildings attracting crime. Neglected waterfronts.
The tour turned down a street where discarded furniture was stacked on the sidewalk.
``Now I feel at home,'' quipped Commissioner Robert Layton, who lives in Willoughby.
He also looked worried. ``There are so many parallels,'' Layton said. ``They have a sound base of residential ownership that really wants to fight for their community.''
Commissioner Donald Williams, also of Willoughby, noted that newer houses did not match older two-story homes in style or size. How many neighborhoods share that fight?
Commissioners wondered how long can aging owners maintain neighborhoods and property values when few young families move in.
It wasn't long ago that Park Place and Brambleton suffered similar fates. Proud owners died or became too frail to protect investments; their children declined to take over.
The result was that many owners had little choice but to abandon their houses, unwillingly adding to the blight they battled against.
Commissioner Anthony Paige said Norfolk must think of ways to help Berkley and Campostella attract young buyers now moving to suburbs. Start with a program to discourage chain-link fences in front yards because they harm residential streetscapes, he said.
Paige also noted unused waterfront that could be developed as a commercial gateway to downtown.
Commissioner Raymond Dean moaned about overgrown vacant lots and dilapidated houses. ``They must not have any inspectors come out here at all,'' he said.
Berkley leader Horace Downing, who accompanied the tour, was pleased that commissioners witnessed the problems. ``All agencies should come out and look at the neighborhoods and consider the parts they can play,'' he said.
Sweeping Ocean View. City officials have toured Ocean View for years. On Nov. 3 and 4 they'll try something new - sort of.
A code-enforcement sweep.
They've had them before. But Ocean View leaders weren't satisfied. Nor was City Councilman Randy Wright, who called for a blue-ribbon panel to lead the way.
It will include Deputy City Attorney Andre Foreman, Assistant City Manager Shurl Montgomery, building code and health supervisors, code, health and zoning inspectors and a waste management official.
The idea, Foreman said, is to coordinate an intensive effort to back up routine inspections. Its first target will be the bay side of East Ocean View Avenue between 3rd Bay and 19th Bay streets.
``We want to show our capability . . . to sweep an area in a defined period of time,'' he said. ``It will include reviewing those structures already under action so that there will be appropriate follow-up or additional action.''
If the sweep works, City Hall will press into Cottage Line, onto Hillside and Kingston avenues in Bayview, and between East Ocean View Avenue and Pretty Lake.
``We want to send a very loud and clear message to absentee landlords, to people who don't keep their property up to standards, that it's just not going to be tolerated,'' Wright said. ``This, we hope, will at least encourage people in the next target areas to get their act together.'' by CNB