THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508210165
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 182 lines
A North Carolina charity that is suing the city for $1.95 million in an unusual land dispute has quietly acquired six more properties in Virginia Beach over the past year from land salvager Edwin B. Lindsley Jr.
Nearly all the properties have some unusual characteristics, and they could wind up in federal lawsuits against the city or others.
The properties include a half-mile stretch of Chesapeake Bay beachfront and a strip of land across one hole at the Princess Anne Country Club.
Each came as a gift to the charity from Lindsley, a Virginia Beach businessman who has engaged in a long-running feud with the city, often over unusual tracts of land.
Both Lindsley and the charity say the gifts were made for altruistic reasons - to help revive the dormant charitable group.
The Elizabeth City charity, called the Pasquotank Action Council, is ``just looking to generate funds to survive,'' said Harold Barnes, the group's attorney. ``This would resurrect their group.''
In the past, Lindsley has brought many of his land controversies to Virginia Beach courts, where he has lost some rulings. But any dispute over these properties would land in Norfolk's federal court because the charitable group is out-of-state.
The group already has filed one federal lawsuit against Virginia Beach this year. This action seeks to win control of two acres near Oceana Naval Air Station given to the group by Lindsley. A city pump station sits on this land.
The Pasquotank group claims it owns the land - acquired from Lindsley in July 1994 - and that the city illegally built the pump station there 24 years ago. The group wants $1.7 million in back rent and $250,000 in punitive damages.
A trial is scheduled for October.
Asked if the group will file more lawsuits over the other properties, Barnes said, ``That's possible. They'll probably do whatever is necessary to defend their rights.''
By transferring these properties to the Pasquotank Action Council, Lindsley's 30-year feud with the city may move into new territory.
For years, Lindsley has made his name and fortune by reviving long-defunct companies and acquiring long-forgotten assets, including land that other people think they owned.
Over the years, Lindsley has claimed land under Pembroke Mall, Mount Trashmore, a Rudee Inlet marina, an Ocean Park beach, a junior high school and public streets in north Virginia Beach and Shadowlawn.
Last year, Lindsley made his boldest claim yet, declaring that he owns the Virginia Beach Oceanfront beach. He allegedly acquired it by reviving a company that developed the resort town around 1900. Lindsley is expected to take legal action on this claim later this year.
In a recent interview, Lindsley said he gave the seven properties to the Pasquotank group because ``they do a lot of good things. They're a very worthwhile recipient.''
The nonprofit group is not active today, but was founded in 1973 to work with youth, said group leader Raymond R. Rivers Sr. Rivers is also president of the Elizabeth City chapter of the National Association of Advancement of Colored People, and husband of Elizabeth City Councilwoman Myrtle Rivers.
The group ran a day-care center, an after-school program, a Big Brother-type program and other community outreach programs before funding dried up in 1989, Barnes said.
Since then, the group has changed directors and searched for new funding, Rivers said. It has no connection to Virginia Beach.
``We're in the process of reorganizing our board of directors so we can take action on (the properties) we have acquired,'' Rivers said. ``All of this is on the drawing board.''
He declined to comment further.
Barnes is the common link between Lindsley and the Pasquotank group. The Norfolk lawyer represents Lindsley in his Oceanfront claim. He is from Elizabeth City and once represented the NAACP there.
Lindsley said he has never met Rivers or anyone else at the Pasquotank Action Council, but learned of their good work through Barnes. The lawyer said Lindsley often makes donations to charities. ``This would be no different,'' Barnes said.
The seven properties acquired by the Pasquotank Action Council are an odd bunch of lots with weird shapes, sizes or encumbrances:
Chesapeake Bay beach: Two adjoining properties cover a half-mile stretch along the Bay, from First Landing/Seashore State Park to Beech Street. The land goes back 350 feet from the Bay.
Lindsley sold this land to the Pasquotank group for a nominal $200 in June 1994. It includes part of the old Seaview Beach site, a former amusement park for blacks that operated in the days of segregation.
Bayfront land is worth about $5,000 to $10,000 a foot, Lindsley said. That means this stretch of 2,600 feet could be worth $13 million to $26 million.
``I think it has a lot of value,'' Lindsley said. ``I think it has enormous potential for condominiums.''
Lindsley said he believes the property can be built upon, even though it is on the Bay. The only impediment, he said, is a restriction that lets neighbors use about one-third of the land.
Princess Anne Country Club: This is the most peculiar property of the bunch.
Lindsley said this is a ``paper street'' - an unbuilt extension of Ivy Drive - running across the 15th fairway of the Princess Anne Country Club golf course. He said he recently offered to sell it to the club for $7,500, but was turned down.
``I thought I was being very generous, but it wasn't perceived that way,'' Lindsley said. He estimated the property is worth at least $50,000. ``I thought this would be a good piece of land to give to Pasquotank, so I gave it to them,'' Lindsley said.
Country club President David Pender, a lawyer, declined to comment, except to say Lindsley did not make his offer to a club officer, director or manager. Lindsley said he made the offer to club member Dawson Taylor, a boyhood friend who owns Taylor's Do-It Center. Taylor also declined to comment.
Lindsley gave the property to the Pasquotank group last month. The deed appears to include more than just the unbuilt Ivy Drive. It describes a triangular lot at the corner of Bay Colony Drive and Pinewood Road that appears to include a city water tower. Lindsley, however, said it does not include the water tower.
Lindsley acquired the property in an unusual way. First, he revived a defunct company that mapped and developed Linkhorn Park and the country club in 1916. Then he acquired the company's assets. Finally, in January, he revoked the public streets and easements that were dedicated to the city by the company years ago, but never used.
Pump station: This is the property in the pending federal lawsuit. At stake are two acres on Streamline Drive South in West Oceana Gardens. The site was dedicated to the city as a park in 1950 by the neighborhood's developers. Around 1970, the city built a pump station on it.
But two of the original developers apparently thought the city misused the site. They sold it to Lindsley in 1993 for $14,500. He then gave it to the Pasquotank group in July 1994.
The Pasquotank group sued the city in federal court in February.
Billboard: This odd-shaped lot at the end of Morris Avenue in Kempsville has two billboards facing the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, near Witchduck Road. Lindsley gave it away in August 1994.
These are not the same billboards that were subject of a lawsuit in 1992, Lindsley said. In that case, the city sued to stop Lindsley from building more billboards. The case was settled; Lindsley did not build more billboards.
This is an adjacent site, Lindsley said, designed strictly to produce income from the billboards.
Holly Road: This is just a tiny sliver, 73 by 34 feet, at Holly Road and 72nd Street. It is not big enough to build on, Lindsley said, but the Pasquotank group might be able to have picnics on it. Lindsley gave it away in December.
Thalia Creek: This is a sliver of land on Thalia Creek near Pembroke.
The deed refers to a lot on a 1916 plat of a subdivision that was never built, a much larger area that includes what is now Pembroke Mall, Princess Anne High School and Columbus Center. None of these buildings appear to be affected by the claim.
The lot would be at the end of Cleveland Street, if the street were extended all the way east to Thalia Creek. It is impossible to locate exactly because almost none of the streets on the map was ever built.
Lindsley gave away the property earlier this month.
Lindsley acquired the seven properties over a period of years. What happens to them from now on, he said, is up to the Pasquotank Action Council. He referred all questions on the properties' future to Barnes.
``They're properties we have worked on and accumulated,'' Lindsley said, ``and we feel they have very substantial value or potential value.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Edwin B. Lindsley Jr.
Graphics
KEN WRIGHT/Staff
Color photos
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
LEGAL DISPUTES
Several disputes involving land salvager Edwin Lindsley are
pending. Among them:
Oceanfront beach: Lindsley has filed papers with the Army Corps
of Engineers claiming he owns almost all of the Virginia Beach
Oceanfront beach. Legal action may follow later this year.
Park: The city of Norfolk is suing Lindsley to establish that
Lindsley does not own Indian River Park in Chesapeake. Norfolk
claims it owns the park. The case is pending in Chesapeake Circuit
Court.
Pump station: The Pasquotank Action Council, a nonprofit charity
in Elizabeth City, is suing Virginia Beach for $1.95 million over
control of two acres near Oceana Naval Air Station. Lindsley gave
the council the land last year. The city has a pump station there.
Pasquotank claims the pump station is there illegally. A trial is
scheduled for October in Norfolk's federal court.
by CNB