THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412240098
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
With the OK of most residents, the City Council has approved a new redevelopment plan for Park Place, the neighborhood of mostly moderate to lower income people around 35th Street.
The plan is scheduled to be carried out over the next decade.
The heart of the plan involves using federal money to buy 215 properties and tear down the buildings on them. The buildings include both single-family homes and apartments. The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority will relocate the people living in them, under federal guidelines that require relocation assistance for both renters and owners.
On the purchased properties, the NRHA will build new homes for moderate and middle-class income people. The NRHA also plans to build three neighborhood parks and redesign and close some streets in the area.
Under agreement with the residents, 75 percent of the homes will be reserved for affordable housing, and 25 percent will sold at the market rate.
The new plan does not include 35th Street, the area's principal commercial street. That section of the redevelopment plan is still under study.
Residents of the area largely supported the new plan. Nelson White of the Park Place Area Committee endorsed the plan as the product of a series of efforts between the redevelopment agency and area residents. The efforts included a two-day session held last February where residents and city staff discussed and generated ideas for the area.
Landlords and property owners also generally supported the plan.
``I wish it could be done in six months,'' said Lee Fisher, who owns 22 units in the area. ``It's making it easier for me to get better tenants. Before, I could only get the bottom of the barrel.''
There were concerns raised about the track record of the NRHA in relocating lower-income residents and destroying neighborhoods of lower-income people.
``The NRHA will do the same thing to Park Place as it did to the Church Street area,'' Joseph H. Rose said.
The NRHA tore down most of the old urban neighborhood around Church Street, a center of black life. The NRHA has redeveloped most of the area with a mixture of homes and businesses at lower density.
Other features of the plan include:
The redesign of sections of Newport Avenue. The plans include construction of a landscaped center median from 35th Street to 31st Street, and extension of Newport Avenue from Lamberts Point Road southward to 31st Street. Parts of the avenue will become a tree-lined promenade leading into groups of homes.
Acquiring property adjacent to the Park Place multipurpose center for an apartment building for the elderly.
Develop a ``gateway'' entrance into the neighborhood across from the Virginia Zoo entrance. The zoo is under redevelopment and an improved entrance into the neighborhood would dovetail with plans to improve the zoo.
Park Place has been under redevelopment by the NRHA since 1973. Since then, the NRHA has spent $14 million, officials said at the meeting. ILLUSTRATION: Map
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