THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510050158
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
City planners and Pembroke area business leaders have created a plan to change the 86-acre core of the Central Business District to an upscale pedestrian plaza through a public-private investment strategy.
But City Council members wanted to know Tuesday what the city would get for its money and how the city could control the quality of development in the targeted area.
Councilman Louis R. Jones summed up the the general feeling of fellow members this way:
``The city will invest a large amount of money in here to bring about overall change. My concern is that we want to control the picture so it'll end up being what we want there.''
The comment came at a council briefing in which city Planning Director Robert Scott and comprehensive planning coordinator Tom Paul provided a thumbnail sketch of progress to date on the Central Business District plans.
The key elements in the plan, said Paul, were proposed zoning changes that would basically restrict the type of commercial development in the core district.
The changes would exclude operations such as lumber yards and gas stations from the core commercial district, he added. Widened sidewalks, centralized parking areas, green areas, tasteful lighting and landscaping would garnish the commercial district.
Councilwoman Nancy K. Parker wanted to know where the city would come up with its share of the money to create the upscale commercial district.
Creation of a special tax district, Paul replied. Resort oceanfront improvements have been financed in this manner - specifically through the Tourism Growth Investment Fund. This is a revenue pool fed through a special levy on resort hotel, restaurant and amusement receipts.
Scott said the council could control the quality of commercial development and maintain aesthetics in the Central Business District core by tightening or loosening the city's purse strings. Cooperation of members of the Central Business District Association is a must as well, he said, because zoning conditions cannot be used as a coercive tool by local governing bodies in Virginia.
The City Council will get the plan sometime in November, after it has been reviewed by the Planning Commission, Paul said.
In other developments Tuesday, the City Council learned that:
North Carolina has withdrawn a request for a stay in the Lake Gaston pipeline project from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, but the Tarheel state will pursue further legal delays in a U.S. Appeals Court. Meanwhile, Virginia Beach will receive bids on the construction of the 72-mile-long pipeline and a water pumping station in the next 10 to 12 days.
The apparent low bid on Phase IX, the last segment of the 10-year Atlantic Avenue Streetscape project, is $200,000 over the estimated cost. The project involves the untangling of the merger of Atlantic and Pacific avenues at 42nd Street and turning the area into a colorful, landscaped northern gateway to the resort strip. The original estimate for the project was $3.9 million. by CNB