THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410290231
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
School officials believe they have found the perfect spot for a building to replace Linkhorn Park Elementary School, which sits within Oceana Naval Air Station's crash zone.
Trouble is, the owners don't want to sell - at least not for what officials are offering. But they may have no choice.
The School Board, in an unusual exercise of its right of eminent domain, is asking the Circuit Court to order the owners of part of the site, a 9-acre tract, to turn the land over to the city for $800,000. The board is expected to vote Tuesday night on whether to file in court for permission to take an adjoining 6-acre tract for $260,000.
No court dates have been set.
``They're trying to steal it,'' said Margaret E. Johnson, an 80-year-old widow who owns the 6-acre parcel of the disputed property on First Colonial Road near Virginia Beach General Hospital, just a short drive from Linkhorn Park Elementary.
``They didn't even call me and say, `We'd like to talk to you about your property,' '' said Johnson, who has owned the land and her home there for 44 years. ``They sent me a letter saying, `This is our price.' ''
Linkhorn Park is one of two Beach schools that city and school officials have agreed to move away from Oceana's crash and high noise zones.
Seatack Elementary is the other; negotiations are under way for land for Seatack.
Officials worried that the schools' locations would count against Oceana when the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission decides next year which military bases to close.
Moving the schools is a necessary evil, said School Board member Robert W. Hall, chairman of the board committee that finds sites for new schools.
``When you look at it, Linkhorn Park School is located in a good place,'' Hall said. ``But I think that most of the people in the city would agree that having Oceana here is a good thing, too.''
Hall would not comment on the problems with the land for the new Linkhorn Park building.
But, he said, finding a suitable site was not easy. The land had to be at least 15 acres, near the old Linkhorn Park school and reasonably priced.
``I have a saying when it comes to selecting a school site. It's that you do what you have to do, and sometimes what you have to do is settle for less than the optimum.''
Still, Johnson and the owners of the other part of the site, brothers John Ray Potter, Gordon B. Potter and Dean S. Potter, believe there are other pieces of property in the area that would be better for the school.
And they believe their property is worth much more than what school officials have offered.
Officials in the city attorney's office say they got independent appraisals of the land's worth.
The offer to the Potters works out to about $89,000 an acre, while Johnson would be paid half that - a little more than $43,000 an acre.
The property is zoned for residential development. For that zoning, considered less valuable than other types, the city's assessment probably is not too far off, said Jon Sedel, owner of a real estate company and some commercial property in the area.
The land, however, likely could be rezoned for office space, the most valuable type of property in that area, Sedel said. That would significantly increase the value, he said.
The Potter brothers had applied to the city for just such a rezoning, until the School Board targeted the land for takeover.
John Ray Potter declined to comment this week.
Johnson said the Potters offered her $1 million for her land just a few years ago. Recently, she said, local real estate giant Armada/Hoffler offered her $1.2 million, until they found out the School Board was seeking the property.
Johnson is loath to lose the land she and her late husband bought in 1950, cleared and used to build a rambling ranch home. She raised four children in the home.
She was living there when she buried one of her sons, then later her husband.
Johnson, who now lives solely on Social Security, hoped to use the land as a nest egg for her remaining three children.
By the time she could find herself a new place to live, ``$260,000 would just be my living expenses,'' Johnson said.
``I'm brokenhearted about it,'' she said.
``I don't know what I'm going to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS/
Margaret E. Johnson lives at Linkhorn Park's proposed new site, away
from Oceana's crash zone.
Staff map
Proposed site of new school
Linkhorn Park Elementary School
by CNB