THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070446
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
It's not a meeting. It's not a public hearing. It's more like a game where the object is to cooperate in designing the best new neighborhood.
It's called a charrette, and it begins tonight. Andres Duany, a Miami architect, will kick off the opening session at 7 p.m. with a speech at the Ocean View Senior Center at 600 E. Ocean View Ave.
After that, Duany will get together with civic leaders and city officials to hammer out a design for the redevelopment of the upper bay streets of East Ocean View.
The city has decided to tear down the neighborhood. But some residents say they haven't given up the battle to keep their homes.
From Friday through Sunday, Duany and hisstaff will hold open ``working design sessions'' at the senior center.
They plan to create a new, more upscale, neighborhood in front of - and with the help of - the people attending.
If a resident or city official has a suggestion or concern, Duany or one of his 10 to 14 staffers will quickly sketch it out so it can be discussed. The comments will become part of the plans the architects use to make their final design.
``If people have concerns, we are there to hear them and incorporate them into the design,'' said Michael D. Watkins, Duany's project manager. ``If we all go at this with the idea of approaching a consensus, the charrette will be most productive.''
Although the design sessions are scheduled to end by the dinner hour each day, Duany said he expects he and his staff to work until midnight and beyond every night. On Tuesday afternoon, Duany will present the final design at the senior center.
By then, the goal is to have reached a rough consensus on what the new neighborhood will be - what it will look like, who will live there, how it will be built.
Although the charrette is officially open to the public, it is meant more for people with a direct interest in the area - residents, civic leaders and city officials - people willing not just to talk, but to work and learn as well.
This charrette faces a big challenge: to mesh viewpoints that at their start seem directly opposed.
On one side is the city and its supporters, who say the decision has already been made: The City Council has approved the plan to raze the neighborhood, including all homes and streets. More than 1,000 dwellings spaces, mostly apartments, will be leveled.
On the other side are civic leaders of this section of East Ocean View who say they resent being forced out so someone else can live in their old neighborhood. They say they have not given up their fight.
Both sides agree that the beachfront neighborhood, which has long had problems with crime and drugs, could be redeveloped into a more cohesive, successful neighborhood.
They disagree on how to do it. One side advocates total clearance, the other side, selective development, code enforcement and neighborhood policing.
The charrette process is traditionally based on inclusiveness, cooperation and consensus, but a tension is developing over just how open the East Ocean View sessions will be and who will included.
Andrea Bear, spokeswoman for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, would not release the names of the civic leaders and city officials scheduled to have interviews with Duany this week.
These sessions are meant to complement the working design sessions and give Duany deeper insight into the desires and viewpoints of local residents, Bear said.
R. Patrick Gomez, project coordinator for the redevelopment agency, said Duany would meet with civic leaders such as James Janata, president of the East Ocean View Civic League, and Donald Williams, a planning commissioner.
Janata and Williams are prominent supporters of the plan to raze the neighborhood. Neither Janata nor Williams lives in the section of East Ocean View scheduled to be torn down.
But Barbara Caffee, president of the rival East Ocean View-Little Creek Improvement Association, said that, as of Tuesday she had not been asked to meet with Duany. Caffee opposes the city's plan. She lives in a home that would be destroyed.
Duany's project manager, Mike Watkins, said he was sensitive to the concerns and needs of residents. The task of the charrette, Watkins said, was to take differing or opposing viewpoints and come to an agreement.
Duany's firm, Watkins said, has a history of redevelopment projects in downtown or inner city neighborhoods such as Trenton, N.J., and Providence, R.I.
``Our work is about building new urban neighborhoods and re-weaving old ones back together,'' Watkins said. ``I think we have a pretty good reputation for being sensitive. While there may seem to be a conflict, I hope our reputation speaks for itself.''
But the final determination of how open the process is, Watkins said, was up to the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority - Duany's client, which is paying the firm $160,000 to lead the charrette.
Watkins said the firm is relying on the housing authority to ensure that the civic leaders whom Duany and his staff will meet are a balanced representation of the concerns of residents and civic leaders.
Officially, this section of East Ocean View - from Shore Drive to 30th Bay Street - is scheduled to be torn down. But the housing authority has yet to buy or level most of the homes or apartments. Because of financial constraints, it is expected to take four to five years to do so.
Duany showed no qualms about this aspect of the project Tuesday, when he spoke to the City Council.
He complimented Norfolk on such redevelopment projects as Ghent Square. He said the East Ocean View project excited him because it would give him the chance to design on a clear site.
Redevelopment projects usually involve working around existing homes, which makes design and marketing difficult, Duany said.
Duany is not the only architect using the charrette process. In October, architects Peter Calthorpe from San Francisco and William McDonough from Charlottesville led a charrette to redesign a depressed area of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Calthorpe has worked closely with Duany in the past. Both are well-known for working to create neighborhoods with the vitality, walkability and mix of people a traditional city neighborhood has.
At the charrette in Chattanooga, Calthorpe handed out blocks with pictures of houses, churches, businesses and other parts of a neighborhood on them. Residents, city officials and business leaders then sat at a map and moved the blocks to help design their own city.
``If you just have people stand up and talk, theoretically there can be great differences,'' Calthorpe said. ``But if they sit down and work with people of different viewpoints, they start to synthesize their ideas.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Architect Andres Duany of Miami is known for creating neighborhoods
with vitality, walkability and a mix of people.
Graphic
CHARRETTE SCHEDULE
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB