THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
There's a lot more to the city's proposed amphitheater than a gentle slope and a good sound system.
The $15 million project is supposed to attract tourists to the area and keep them here longer. It's supposed to give residents yet another reason to live in Hampton Roads; it's supposed make up for the disappointment over missing out recently on a racetrack, baseball stadium and big-name dinner theater.
And all that is supposed to start happening over the next 14 months, as the amphitheater is approved, designed and fast-tracked into existence.
By the 1996 tourist season, Whitney Houston could be singing ballads, Garrison Keillor could be spinning tales, high school students could be parading on stage in mortar boards and dark gowns. Happy fans could be singing along with Elton John. Families could be sprawled on blankets, sipping beer and eating sandwiches.
Money has already been allocated to begin design of the project, which will be built by the city in partnership with Cellar Door Inc., a Virginia Beach-based entertainment company.
Reaction to the project has been mostly positive - although some who live just next to the proposed site are concerned.
``I like what it's going to bring to the Beach,'' said Karen Millman, a Landstown Meadows resident who travels to the Wolf Trap amphitheater near Reston several times a year.
Although the proposal has been talked about for more than a year, the details have been hammered out only in the past two months. Because work must begin almost immediately, to meet an extremely tight construction schedule, there has been almost no public involvement in the process.
The first public hearing will be Wednesday afternoon before the Planning Commission; the City Council is scheduled to vote on the project March 28.
Homeowners living near the proposed site - on what will be an extension of Landstown Road near the Virginia Beach Municipal Center - found out only last week that the stage will be 2,000 feet from their back yards.
A handful of Salem Lakes homeowners, who attended an informational meeting on the amphitheater Thursday, expressed anger at the speed of the process and the absence of opportunity for public comment.
``The positive things they're saying about the amphitheater are probably right,'' said Kevin Goddard, a 3 1/2-year resident of the neighborhood. ``But they don't talk about the impact on people.''
``I don't want 20,000 people in my back yard until 11 at night,'' added Doug Hall, who moved into the area last year. ``This is a completely natural setting, and that's why we moved here.''
Other residents worried about the impact the amphitheater would have on their property values. Joyce A. Carter said her first reaction on hearing about the location of the amphitheater was: ``This is not going to help me sell my house.''
Most of the concerned homeowners live next to a wooded area that divides the subdivision from city-owned land. Almost all of the land to the south and east is open, most of it farmland. And because there is so much open space, sound travels well.
Residents say they can hear a base hit at the Princess Anne Park softball fields nearly a mile away. They were not appeased by the city's opinion that they will hear only muffled sounds, as soft as a quiet conversation, from the outdoor facility.
An amphitheater is shaped like a bowl, Cellar Door president Bill Reid said. The speakers are designed to provide a full sound that dies out quickly, he said, and the fans' voices will have to leap the stage and thick woods to reach the homeowners' back yards.
``This is the best site in Virginia Beach and maybe even all of Tidewater,'' Reid said several days before residents expressed their concern.
The location is the best of any the city has considered, Reid said, because it has the best roadway access, is the farthest from neighborhoods and is the least affected by the roar of Navy jets.
The city would have to extend Landstown Road about an eighth of a mile and build another access road to the amphitheater at a cost of about $4 million. Motorists can arrive from the east and west on Princess Anne Road and from the north on Landstown.
The site is on the so-called Lake Ridge property, a 1,200-acre parcel the city bought earlier this year for $9 million. At $8,000 per acre, the amphitheater parcel cost the city less than $700,000.
Construction is expected to cost about $15 million: Less than $9 million from the city and more than $6 million from Cellar Door.
The project should pay for itself within 10 years, said City Council member W.W. Harrison Jr., who spent hundreds of hours crafting the financial deal. And the indirect benefits will be even more significant, he said.
``I really want this to be the shining example of what can happen when private and public works together,'' said Harrison, who occasionally refers to it as ``my amphitheater.''
The council is interested in the amphitheater because it fits two primary goals: adding amenities for residents and increasing tourist activities in the ``shoulder'' seasons before Memorial Day and after Labor Day. At the recent council retreat, all but two of the members were enthusiastic about the project.
Those members said they liked the concept of the amphitheater but wished that Cellar Door would pick up more of the tab.
Cellar Door's Reid said he thinks he can encourage tourists to extend Labor Day weekend into a full week's vacation, by scheduling two big-name concerts a week apart with free performances in between as part of the American Music Festival. Cellar Door will be organizing the festival and other summertime events under a city contract it won late last year.
``This is one of the single biggest things that could impact the hotel-motel industry,'' Reid said. In Raleigh, home of another of Cellar Door's eight open-air stages, more than 60,000 hotel rooms were booked last year by people attending amphitheater concerts.
Many of the acts he hopes to bring to the amphitheater, like Elton John, do not normally perform in this area because there are no acceptable venues, said Reid, whose nationally known business books many of the largest musical groups in the industry. Many big-name stars prefer open-air stages because crowds are larger and more enthusiastic and the setting is more pleasant, he said.
Reid and Harrison said they don't intend to cut the public out of the planning process, but they have a construction schedule to meet.
``It does nobody any good for us to build this and open it Aug. 1,'' near the end of the tourist season, Reid said. MEMO: Capacity: 7,500 reserved, covered seats; 12,500 unreserved lawn seats
Proposed opening: April 1996
Attendance: 400,000 projected for first year
Average ticket price: $20
Estimated cost of construction: $7.8 million to $8.8 million from the
city; $6 million to $7 million from Cellar Door Inc.
Related costs to city: $4 million to extend Landstown Road and to
install other infrastructure; $680,000 to buy land
Spinoff benefits: Enhances tourism by bringing in new tourists and
encouraging visitors to extend their stays
ILLUSTRATION: Color map
by CNB