THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507260164
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 225 lines
PORTSMOUTH people have seen the vision.
And because they have become so involved, the economic and community development plan known as Vision 2005 is moving faster than city officials had anticipated.
``People in Portsmouth are more serious than I understood when we began this process,'' project coordinator Steve Herbert of the city's Economic Development office said Tuesday. ``I see a sense of urgency emerging. They are more interested than I ever anticipated they would be.''
The plan to revitalize the city from Downtown to Midtown was proposed by Ray Gindros, a consultant from Pittsburgh, Pa., who continues to work with citizen task forces brainstorming the implementation of the plan.
``They're way ahead of schedule,'' Gindros said last week, when he came to town to meet with the task forces. ``The energy getting released is terrific.''
The task forces were organized to include citizens who live or own businesses in the various areas of the plan. Each is headed by a city councilman.
By using the knowledge of ``people most familiar with the problems,'' Gindros said, ``It's easier to find acceptable solutions.''
Movement to implement the decisions will be quicker because of the council involvement in each planning group, Herbert said.
``This puts council members in touch with their constituents over real issues,'' Gindros said.
In fact, the council's decision to hire retired Norfolk Assistant City Manager Ronald W. Massie as interim Portsmouth manager reflects the energy loose in the city.
Massie's specialty is planning and development. In Norfolk he was very instrumental in downtown waterfront activity and in bringing in new hotels.
Herbert, who also came to Portsmouth's economic development staff from a similar job in Norfolk, worked with Massie in Norfolk and said he had talked with him about the plan since he retired in Norfolk six months ago.
In addition, Massie has worked a great deal with Gindros, who has been a consultant on several projects in Norfolk, including the downtown waterfront.
Although he is versed in other facets of city management, including budgeting, Massie said the Vision 2005 was ``surely part of the appeal over here.''
``Generally, council has reaffirmed the plan as a priority and urged me to pursue its development,'' he said. Massie's appointment as interim manager followed the retirement on July 1 of Wayne Orton.
Massie said he expects to hold the job for as long as six months, while council conducts a national search for a new manager.
``I think there are some very exciting concepts in the plan,'' Massie said. ``There are some good visions but they are grounded in reality.''
Massie said he is a ``great supporter of Ray Gindros.''
``He is a good urban designer,'' Massie said.
One of the major problems Massie and other city officials face is a source of money to implement the plan.
``Because it's happening faster than anticipated, we must establish funding priorities,'' Herbert said. ``We obviously can't do it all at once. This is a 10-year plan!''
The first visible activity that directly impacts on the plan is construction of I.C. Norcom High School on a site between High Street and London Boulevard.
Although the city was committed to build the school on that space, the emergence of Vision 2005 required changes in the site plan. The location of the school building and the new stadium were adjusted to conform with the plan, which includes extension of a Scotts Creek arm to London Boulevard and landscaping around the late site of the school and a new Portsmouth football stadium.
``That showed flexibility in the bureaucracy and a team spirit in the city,'' Gindros said. ``That's good.''
The city bureaucracy is proceeding to build the school, projected to cost around $35 million.
A pile of dirt - 16,000 cubic yards of it - now sitting on the site will be part of the foundation for the school, which Gindros envisions as part of a new center in the city.
City Engineer Richard Hartman said Tuesday that the bids for construction will be opened on Aug. 1 and presented to City Council on Aug. 8.
Gindros has suggested expansion of the civic center in the area, where the Human Service Building already is located. An alternative would be commercial office space and similar private construction.
However, a task force headed by Councilman Bernard Griffin has not at this time addressed anything but the school.
In a June 22 letter to Orton, committee members said the auditorium, gymnasium, cafeteria, stadium and library are all too small; however, the committee wrote that it ``wishes to make clear that it wants to proceed with the current schedule.''
Hartman said changes in the major portions of the proposed school would not be feasible.
``The cost would be astronomical,'' he said.
Former City Councilman E. Saunders Early Jr., an elected official in the 1970s, had been actively involved on the Midtown task force.
``Somebody has to have vision and this is the best I've seen,'' Early said. ``A lot of plans this city has had have never materialized. I'm very much impressed with Gindros.''
But, Early said, ``you have to find the money.''
Early, who owns Robbie's store on High Street in Midtown, favors the plan, however.
``We're holding on, based on hope,'' he said. ``To do nothing about Portsmouth is to let it go to rack and ruin. The 2005 program is the brightest thing I've seen.''
The Midtown Association, whose members also form the task force, has taken the challenge, association president Mary Curran said.
When Gindros first suggested that Midtown become less commercial and more residential, business owners in the area persuaded him to redraw the plans to emphasize the business aspects.
As it turned out, Gindros recommended reconfiguring the streets around MidCity shopping center, replacing the center and orienting the business toward High Street.
That's the plan the task force now embraces.
City Council has agreed to make its No. 1 highway priority the straightening of Frederick Boulevard from Interstate 264 to High Street.
``The state highway department has been notified but I'm not sure the list has been submitted with that at the top,'' Herbert said.
The No. 1 priority of the task force is to ``do something'' about the almost empty shopping center which sits in the middle of all the other businesses in the area.
``There's a lot of frustration with Sentinel, the company in New York that owns the property,'' Herbert said. ``We have asked them either to participate in the plan or sell the center.''
He said that if the company is not going to participate, the city would like to buy the property and sell it to developers who are interested in building a new center.
``We're talking to two developers right now,'' Herbert said. ``We have a proposal in hand from one of them and the other has told us what they'd like to do.''
But, he added, one of the requirements the developers would make of the city would be the reconfiguration of the streets.
Developers in the region are interested in many proposed projects in the plan, Herbert added.
``They know the city is committed to participation in the projects,'' he said. ``They know we're serious about the plan.''
Curran, the Midtown Association president, said she has been encouraged by the city's willingness to get on with other facets of the plan while trying to deal with the shopping center situation.
``I call it the greening of High Street,'' she said. ``We're going to do some things to make the area look nicer and we're going to clean it up.''
And, Curran added, ``I'm very optimistic about 2005.''
Harvey Johnson, a member of the Effingham Corridor task force is not as sure.
``I've seen things Portsmouth became excited about,'' Johnson said. ``Then the fire flickered and went out. I don't know if this is just another one that captures the imagination and dies.''
Johnson said he believes the city should have ``benchmarks to get there.''
``The public ought to know what to expect when,'' he said.
Johnson's Galaxy plan for the blocks between Effingham and Chestnut streets fronting on County Street has been reconfigured in his efforts to make it part of the plan.
Councilman Ward Robinett, task force chairman, said he hopes the committee will be able to come up with a plan to develop ``an important area that's got a reasonable chance for success into the next century.''
Another task force is addressing Northside, the area between Downtown and the Midtown Tunnel that encompasses the Naval Hospital and Scotts Creek.
``It's going to happen over there,'' Herbert said. ``We're going to get a better product because of community involvement and we're going to get the Navy involved too.''
Northside, he said, ``has such wonderful potential.''
The task force that will see the most immediate action is Downtown.
``The next big decision is High Street,'' Herbert said. ``Council has to OK the design and find money to help pay for it.''
Another former council member, V. Morton ``Mo'' Whitlow, is a member of the Mayor's Committee on Vision 2005.
``I think the inlet is the No. 1 priority,'' Whitlow said, referring to a new ferry inlet up to Water Street at High Street.
``Downtown business has been pushing for it a long time. The original ferry stop and Portside were temporary a decade ago.''
The city will get some help with the inlet project from Tidewater Regional Transit which hopes to get about 50 percent of the funding from federal grants.
Whitlow said that if the city is going to take advantage of the federal funding, then citizens will see something happening on the inlet by November.
In addition, the Downtown group is working with the Olde Towne Civic League and Maury Cooke's Community Development Group to improve the 600 blocks of London Boulevard, Queen and High streets.
``That's a gateway block,'' Herbert said. ``It's important that we get this done. It's a key to westward improvement.''
Funding for some of the proposed city actions to encourage the 600 block improvements must be the second decision made by council, he said.
The list of priorities put the reconfiguration of the Midtown roads in third place.
``The real challenge to the whole city is to find the funding mechanism to make it all work,'' Whitlow said. ``If our resources are limited, then priorities become difficult.''
Gindros, whose planning efforts have touched many cities over the years, said nobody accomplishes a plan without a mix of people, both in the planning and in the financing.
``You always mix citizens, the city and potential investors and developers,'' he said.
Herbert takes that seriously too.
``We need to keep this thing cranked up,'' he said. ``It is driven by the actions initiated by the citizens. That's how we make it move out.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover
Construction site of new I.C. Norcom High School
Staff photo by JIM WALKER
In the artist's rendition, above, the grassy area, brickwork and
water fountain at the foot of High Street would be removed in favor
of a new ferry inlet that cuts up to Water Street between the
Seaboard building and the now unfinished King's Crossing
condominiums. The popular flag pole would be preserved.
Photos
``To do nothing about Ports-
mouth is to let it go to rack and ruin. The 2005 program is the
brightest thing I've seen.''
Saunders Early Jr., owner of Robbies
``I've seen things Portsmouth became excited about. Then the fire
flickered and went out. I don't know if this is just another one
that captures the imagination and dies.''
Harvey Johnson
``I call it the greening of High Street. We're going to do some
things to make the area look nicer and we're going to clean it up. .
. . I've very optimistic about 2005.''
Mary Curran
KEYWORDS: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT by CNB