THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 5, 1995 TAG: 9512050005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
The more information local governments share with their citizens on controversial projects, the better.
Norfolk's proposed MacArthur Center is a subject of concern to many of the city's citizens, and to several members of City Council.
In formal and informal gatherings around town, like the meeting called by Councilmen Herb Collins and Paul Riddick last night at Ruffner Middle School, questions are being raised about the cost to the city of the project generally. A particular concern is the appropriateness of the city's application for a loan from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help finance the downtown mall.
The councilmen and citizens would like more details of the terms of agreement among the city, the major department stores involved and the mall's developer.
Now they would like more information, prior to the vote by City Council scheduled for Dec. 12, about the relocation of Fire Headquarters now on City Hall Avenue. In a letter to council Nov. 21, City Manager Jim Oliver proposed a new fiscal-year 1996 capital-improvements budget project necessitated by ``the current increased traffic load due to the various downtown attractions and the anticipated influx of traffic expected from the additional improvements soon to come.'' Moving the headquarters to the Downtown Plaza and some of its functions to an improved facility on Thole Street would cost $6.2 million ``with funds to be provided by an authorization to issue bonds.''
To provide another forum to air and answer concerns citywide about these and other aspects of downtown development, Coun-cil-man Randy Wright is sponsoring a town meeting tonight, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will take place at Lafayette-Winona Middle School, 1701 Alsace Ave. (at the corner of Tidewater Drive and Alsace). Other council members may attend, and representatives from the city's economic-development office and the city manager's office are expected to be there.
This gathering is billed as a ``town meeting'' because the MacArthur Center will have particular impact in Norfolk. But the center's planners envision it as a regional draw. Critics citywide and regionwide have had their doubts about Norfolk's numbers. Tonight provides officials, supporters and critics alike another opportunity for questions and answers. by CNB