THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030088
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
On a good weekend night, hundreds of people stream under the marquee of the Naro theater and afterward visit nearby shops and restaurants on Colley Avenue. In shopping center lingo, the theater ``anchors'' this busy shopping street.
But if it were built today, under current city codes, the 550-seat moviehouse would need a 183-space parking lot, one for every three seats. That not only would be prohibitively expensive, it also would plant a giant parking lot in the middle of a finely grained urban neighborhood.
Ghent, an area of some 10,000 people around Colley Avenue, is not the only area at odds with modern zoning. Olde Towne in Portsmouth and the resort area in Virginia Beach owe much of their charm to the fact that they are built as much for people as they are for cars.
But planners are often stumped about how or whether to mesh these pedestrian-oriented areas with the demands of a mobile society. In many cases, zoning codes favor the needs of suburbanites who depend on cars, limiting the choices.
In December, Miami architect Andres Duany came to town to redesign upper East Ocean View. He got a big laugh when he showed a slide of Independence and Virginia Beach boulevards at Pembroke. He mocked the wide boulevards, giant parking lots and absence of people, except those in cars.
Norfolk's path to prosperity, Duany said, lies in emphasizing its urban form.
But Norfolk's zoning codes are a lot like Virginia Beach's, even the ones that govern historic areas like Ghent. Urban neighborhoods like Ghent often exist in spite of city zoning codes, not because of them.
The Naro theater, for example, almost didn't reopen in 1977. The theater had been closed during business negotations, said co-owner Tench H. Phillips III, and was within a few months of losing its grandfathered exemption to city code requirements.
The conflicts go beyond parking.
A typical Ghent street might have a large single-family home and a five-story apartment building side by side. Each might occupy a skinny lot with no off-street parking. The combination gives Ghent its density of almost 15,000 people per square mile, almost three times the city's average.
That makes parking tough. But it also puts Colley Avenue's shops within walking distance, giving the neighborhood street life and the character that draws many people to live there.
Still, Ghent is bumping up against modern zoning codes. On Mowbray Arch, the city has labeled apartment buildings non-conforming uses that exist only because they are grandfathered. In other areas of Ghent, apartment buildings are allowed only if they meet parking requirements of one space per home.
Along Colonial Avenue, small shops and offices are scattered between Olney and Princess Anne roads. Current city codes would prohibit this mix of small commercial establishments and homes.
Elsewhere, Norfolk promotes low-density neighborhoods that would be right at home in the suburbs. They range from the wealthy Lafayette Shores to more middle-class areas like Middle Towne Arch.
City Planning Director John Dugan said Norfolk has to compete with the suburbs.
``Duany made the suburbs sound like you would be crazy to live there,'' Dugan said. ``But that's where the majority of people live. . . . We have to appeal to middle-class values. To most people, that means the single-family home.''
The city plans a special zoning district around the new Duany project in East Ocean View that would allow for the denser, mixed use the architect favors. Still, the neighborhood would be less dense than Ghent, Dugan said.
Elsewhere, the planning director said, the city's zoning codescreate places like the grassy office parks along Newtown Road and the shopping centers at Janaf and Military Circle.
Even in Ghent, Dugan said, residents would probably protest if the city allowed new apartment buildings. Most of the codes governing Ghent, Dugan said, are the result of consulting with its residents.
But Dugan said there is a growing consensus within the planning profession that urban neighborhoods like Ghent are an alternate model for new development. Such neighborhoods, Dugan said, depend not only on housing but also on offices, schools, churches and other institutions in the same area.
The Ghent Task Force, a group of residents and business owners, is working with the city's staff to redesign some of the codes governing Ghent. The group may create a new ``overlay district,'' said Barbara Zoby, a planning commissioner and task force member.
The overlay district would encourage or require new businesses to push their buildings up to the street and put parking behind them. The Blockbuster Video store on 21st Street, for example, would have pushed its building up to the street and put parking in the rear.
The task force, Zoby said, could have a package ready to give to the Planning Commission and the City Council by February.
``A lot of those zoning regulations were made for suburbia,'' Zoby said. ``They work out there well, but not in an urban setting.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI, Staff
The Naro Theater...
Single-family homes next to apartment buildings...
Photo by Joseph John Kotlowski, Staff
The tree-lined streets of Ghent, such as Graydon Avenue, do not
belong under coding rules designed for suburban neighborhoods. A
task force is working on redesigning some of the codes governing
Ghent, to blend in new developments without destroying the integrity
of the area.
KEYWORDS: CITY PLANNING NEIGHBORHOODS ZONING CODE by CNB