THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411240316
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Three perennial city projects took major blows in recent days.
The $2.5 million in property damage that Hurricane Gordon's swipe did Sandbridge would have been worse, except for a lucky turn in the hurricane's path and, oceanfront homeowners say, except for their seawalls. Some three miles of seawalls, including four dozen that collapsed, spared the homes behind them the grievous damage inflicted on houses without seawalls.
But the damage done homes and bulkheads - the worst in 20 years - resurrects doubts about the effectiveness of the sand replenishment which Sandbridge insists is sufficient protection: How many millions in federal, state and Sandbridge taxes should be spent to restart and maintain a beach governed by wind and tides, not the local/state/federal replenishment and payment plan?
The city is committed to this plan. But city, state and federal officials should decide now what would signal its failure - how many unplanned replenishments over how many years, or months - and what their options then would be, other than the Sisyphean task of pouring ever scarcer money into ever-shifting sand.
Corporate Landing, the city's largest land approach to an elementary school and a second perennial problem project, took its hit Tuesday: City Council, whether it meant to or not, granted the Development Authority's request, witting or not, to ditch the one paying prospect for this office-and-retail park, a cinema complex. Given time, slow-motion replay and John Madden, City Hall might unscramble the plays and schedule a rematch.
Well before then, however, the Development Authority should document for the Council and the public why and how Corporate Landing came to be, what (besides no theater) the authority promised nearby neighborhoods it would house, and whether past plans and promises now bind Council, given the office park's iffy future.
Chesapeake City Council last week dealt the blow of rejection to the third perennial problem project, the Southeastern Expressway. Without that road, Corporate Landing will lack the interstate access corporate tenants demand. Without that road, the Beach may miss controlled development far more crucial than Corporate Landing. Without intercity cooperation, the region could forgo significant federal highway funds.
A triple whammy or glancing blows? Whichever, key to recovery in each instance are less politics and more candor, all around. by CNB