THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, October 22, 1995               TAG: 9510210136
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
SOURCE: Beth Barber 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   53 lines

A MAJOR REPORT WITH MAJOR POTENTIAL IMPACT ALL AROUND

Why the intimidating lot of type on these two pages today? Because the recommendations of the Urban Partnership involve this city, this region, this state. A dollar to a donut, your local and state lawmakers are poring over the summary too.

The excerpts here offer a general idea of the Partnership goals and plans. Some are already controversial. All need discussion. Informed dis-cus-sion, the kind apparently absent from the Virginia Municipal League's meeting two weeks ago. Much, maybe most of the VML's general membership was asked to OK the Partnership proposals within hours of receiving them.

Mayor Oberndorf, who will be VML president next year, and Councilwoman Parker, who also represented the Beach in VML proceedings, wisely preferred to defer a vote, pending more information and consultation. The motion to defer failed on what VML's Mike Amyx says was a ``very close vote.'' The motion to approve the proposals then passed ``overwhelmingly.'' Who voted aye? Who voted nay? The VML doesn't know, didn't count. Will the Association of Counties and the Chamber of Commerce measure sentiment more precisely at their meetings next month?

The Partnership's stated purpose is to promote regionalism. Its major route to that end is a reward system by which the state would encourage voluntary cooperation among neigh-bor-ing localities on everything from parks to revenue-sharing. The rewards would come from a $200 million Economic Incentive Fund. Sharing revenue or education would be worth 5 times as many ``points'' toward a reward as sharing parks, 2 1/2 times as many as sharing water and sewer.

Where the $200 million would come from (over a few years' phase-in period) the Partnership report doesn't say.

The Urban Partnership formed from necessity. Of its 18 governmental members - Arlington, Charlottesville, Chesterfield County, Danville, Fairfax, Hampton, Hopewell, Lynchburg(*), Martinsville(*), Newport News, Norfolk(*), Petersburg(*), Portsmouth(*), Richmond(*), Roanoke City (*), Roanoke County, Virginia Beach and Winchester - seven(*) have lost population, particularly middle- and upper-class population. With that shift in population loom shifts in financial and political clout, regionwide and statewide. Largely in anticipation of those shifts, the Partnership proposes to pool not just governmental/business/citizen efforts but urban problems and suburban resources.

These days, these times, these places, what topic better deserves open, informed debate? by CNB