THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509120091
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Make it a park. Or put in a winding road and line it with research centers and offices. How about a mini-village, with 50 homes plus a church and a school?
These are just some of the ideas considered for Marshall Manor, the 13-acre site formally used for private, low-income housing that has been cleared. The area is on Princess Anne Road next to Roberts Parks.
The City Council and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority have had various ideas about how to use the property, some of which were discussed at a recent council meeting.
Although a variety of ideas were discussed, the consensus was to pursue none of them without first talking to residents at nearby Haynes Tract and other neighborhoods. The NRHA may produce a pamphlet that could be distributed in the neighborhoods and then hold a community meeting.
``I think we have to take it back to the surrounding communities and see what they want,'' Councilman Herbert Collins said.
Officials have had various plans for the site.
Councilman Paul R. Riddick has been a leading advocate for putting in new single-family homes of a better quality that would stabilize the neighborhood, which is now a mixture of public housing, industry and private homes.
With a university just blocks away, it makes sense to build nice housing there, Riddick said.
``There is no reason for the professors who work at Norfolk State to drive to Virginia Beach to go home when we can build something four or five minutes away,'' Riddick said.
Ray Gindroz, an architect and consultant from Pittsburgh whom the city often employs, lectured to the council on the conditions, limits and possibilities of the Marshall Manor site and the area around it.
He asserted that any plan for the site should attempt to repair the broken, confusing street pattern that is now there. The pattern of boulevards and jumbled smaller streets ``looks like a train wreck now,'' Gindroz said.
The Marshall Manor site is surrounded by a mixture of uses. They include Norfolk State, a city cemetery, Roberts Park public housing and Booker T. Washington High School.
Because the area has so many uses, a variety of proposals could be made to work, said Gindroz, who showed a series of preliminary plans that ranged from a new neighborhood to a new industrial park.
Several other ideas arose during the discussion, some not directly related to Marshall Manor.
The Rev. Joseph N. Green Jr., a city councilman, said that residents of Haynes Tract have objected to stores along Princess Anne Road across from Roberts Park because they believe such businesses draw crime into their neighborhood.
Green suggested Princess Anne Road be widened in order to clear out these businesses, which include a Chinese restaurant and other small stores. Gindroz said it was an idea worth considering.
City officials also said that Rite Aid, a major pharmacy chain, was considering putting in a store along Princess Anne Road in this area. by CNB