THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511100205
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 137 lines
ALL MIKE AND MARK Malbon wanted to do was make a few improvements to their $1.4 million Culver Lane Convenience Center, set to open next month on General Booth Boulevard.
They worked it out with the city last summer but realize now that they left local civic league leaders out of the loop. That's one mistake, Mike Malbon said Thursday, that he'll never make again.
``Mark and I both live in the community,'' said Malbon, a Lago Mar resident. ``We've lived here all our lives. We understand the importance of the community and we're not trying to pull anything over on anyone.''
The Malbon family tree, in fact, has deep roots there. Hundreds of acres where the Ocean Lakes subdivision now exists, and where Mark Malbon now lives, was formerly home to the Malbon family's hog farm.
Traces of that enterprise are evident even in the Malbons' latest venture. The Culver Lane Convenience Center they are building will include a gas station, car wash and convenience store, offering Malbon barbecue.
The Malbon brothers, who have owned seven convenience stores across the city at one time or another, have been planning the Culver Lane operation since 1991, when the city approved their plans for the project.
Located at the northeast corner of General Booth Boulevard and Culver Lane, the convenience store, pump station and car wash has been under construction since September and is set to open by mid-December. When completed, it will employ about 15 people, gas up to eight cars at a time, and offer a two- to three minute drive-through car wash and a 2,800 square foot food and beverage retail store.
Mike Malbon describes the facility as ``state-of-the-art'' and says that it will be the biggest convenience center on General Booth Boulevard. He also said that he knows now that he should have worked harder to keep nearby civic leagues up with the center's plans. But, he added, this is the first center he and his brother have built from scratch.
``They're upset that we didn't go to them,'' said Mike Malbon. ``They feel left out.''
Civic leagues all along General Booth Boulevard have worked for years to maintain a residential flavor in the face of increasing commercial development. Certain sections of the boulevard, between Dam Neck Road and Nimmo Church, have even been identified and targeted by the city for environmental, aesthetic and architectural designs that are compatible with the surrounding communities.
Some of these same civic leagues have been especially vigilant to ensure that businesses conform to the city's Comprehensive Plan and to other additional design and beautification rules the city has enacted. They even have been successful in some cases of not only affecting building and design plans, but also of terminating certain economic development projects.
For example, a proposed $4 million, 10- to 14-screen multiplex cinema at Corporate Landing was nixed by the city in 1994, in part because of surrounding civic league representatives' objections. They feared the theater would lead to another major shopping center in the area, which already has two: Dam Neck Square Shopping Center and Strawbridge Marketplace.
Glenn Tainter, president of the 11-year-old Courthouse/Sandbridge Coalition of Civic Leagues, has been closely monitoring the Culver Lane Convenience Center's progress since it was first proposed four years ago. He opposed the plan from the beginning, arguing that it didn't fit in with the city's Comprehensive Plan. The master plan for the city's future development called for the parcel to be used for offices, not retail development.
But it was changes to the building plans that were approved, not the rezoning, that recently angered Tainter when he saw the construction under way. He accuses the city's Planning Department of approving design changes without notifying the civic leagues.
``We want to know exactly what the finished project is going to look like so there is no doubt about it,'' said Tainter, a 13-year Red Mill Farm resident and former president of the Red Mill Farm Civic League. ``I hope it will work out to our satisfaction. Our problem is with the city and staff.''
The civic leagues were not informed about new construction changes because they were superior to the project's original plans, said Planning Director Robert J. Scott.
``We knew there was a disagreement, so we called a meeting at the site,'' said Scott. ``We came away feeling very good about it. It was a big improvement over what was presented with the original plan.''
Two City Council members, the Malbon brothers, the architect, the project consultant and two Planning Department staff members attended the meeting. No one from the neighboring civic leagues was present.
Only in cases where new building plans are less than what was originally approved, Scott said, does his department take the time to contact the City Council and civic leagues.
``That's the way we looked at it,'' said Scott. ``But reasonable people do differ on these things. It's really an exercise in balancing competing interests. It can't possibly be done to the satisfaction of everyone in the process.''
Former City Councilman Robert G. Fentress, who voted against the project in 1991, knows that people living in the General Booth Boulevard corridor don't want that road to turn into another Virginia Beach Boulevard or Holland Road, which some people describe as unending strip shopping centers broken up by congested traffic patterns.
But he warned that civic leagues also should be careful not to cry wolf too often.
``It can get to the point that you get only negativism out of a civic league,'' said Fentress. ``When that happens, their reputation is not enhanced.''
Herb Taylor, past president of the Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations, said that sometimes problems do arise between the city, civic leagues and builders, but added that it's not a common thing.
``Normally, these things are straightened out before they start,'' he said.
But John Jones, president of the Red Mill Farm Civic League, said civic leagues can't be too careful in protecting a neighborhood's integrity, particularly when it comes to new commercial development.
``You have to follow it every step of the way,'' said Jones. ``We're always afraid somebody's not doing their job.''
That's why Jones and others met recently with another developer who wants to construct a business at Dam Neck Road and General Booth Boulevard.
Jones and others in the neighboring civic leagues vow to continue their efforts to monitor any and all new development that comes their way. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Michael Malbon, left, and his brother, Mark, are building a $1.4
million gas station/convenience store/carwash on the corner of
General Booth Boulevard and Culver Lane.
Civic league leaders are upset that they were not informed about
changes in the design of the convenience center, even though the
changes are superior to the original design.
Civic league leaders fought the plan from the beginning because the
parcel originally had been planned for offices, not retail
development.
Other nearby businesses, like this 7-Eleven at General Booth
Boulevard and Princess Anne Road, have been designed to blend with
other colonial-like structures, such as Nimmo Church.
by CNB