THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260371
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHAWN TERRY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
After a heated public hearing Tuesday, the City Council narrowly decided to allow an $8.7 million shopping center on the former Churchland High School site to spur economic development.
Most of the 170 residents who trekked to council chambers for the hearing left unhappy with the one-vote decision. Many questioned whether a 33-acre shopping center on the property would encourage development and attract other retail activity.
The council voted 4-3 to rezone the property for commercial use, clearing the way for a discount department store and up-scale supermarket on the site.
``We realize that with the shopping center there, our property value is going to plummet,'' said Debra Kaplan Eberhardt, a resident of the nearby Woodbine neighborhood. The Eberhardt family purchased their home in November 1994 and said they will sell their house because of the council vote. ``And we just spent $16,000 for repairs and $25,000 for an addition to the house,'' Debra Eberhardt said.
Seventeen residents spoke out against the shopping center, saying it would kill other nearby retailers, generate more traffic and potentially cost the city tax money.
They also suggested that the project would lower property values and that storm water runoff from the parking lots would discharge pollutants into nearby Stern's Creek.
Developers and city officials said the shopping center would bring in 450 full and part-time jobs and $542,000 in projected tax revenue.
Roger Rinehold, president of the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of rezoning the property.
``This is an opportunity to get people back into Portsmouth who have gone to Chesapeake to shop,'' Rinehold said.
Mayor Gloria O. Webb said it was a difficult decision for her. But Webb said she saw the shopping center coming to Portsmouth as a way to generate a stronger tax base for the financially strapped city.
``Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going have to support it, it's my heartfelt choice,'' she said.
Councilman P. Ward Robinett, Jr. who earlier had urged the council to delay its vote for at least two months so an economic impact study of the project could be done, rejected the zoning change.
``Because I haven't received the economic impact study of the project in order to make the best decision, I vote in opposition to this,'' Robinett said.
Vice Mayor Johnny M. Clemons and Councilman James T. Martin also voted against the shopping center. Councilman James C. Hawks, Bernard D. Griffin, Sr. and Cameron C. Pitts supported it.
Boston-based Development Options Inc. has a preliminary deal to develop the property. They want to begin construction by mid-September but must first get a use permit from the council.
Under that plan, the site would be the home of a Caldor discount department store and a supermarket run by the Maine-based Hannaford Brothers chain.
Members of the Portsmouth division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce have supported the shopping center development, as did former City Manager V. Wayne Orton.
The city faced heavy opposition from the beginning over the proposal.
In April, when the council transferred the land to the city's Industrial Development Authority so it could be sold for the shopping center, neighbors said they didn't want the prime property to be used for additional shopping. Churchland merchants complained that they didn't need more competition.
Thirteen of the residents joined a local developer in a lawsuit to block the project. The lawsuit claimed that the city illegally transferred the property to the IDA and that it was improperly zoning it for commercial use. The suit is pending.
KEYWORDS: PROPOSED SHOPPING CENTER PORTSMOUTH by CNB