THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Virginia Beach City Council's preliminary move this week to ask the Virginia General Assembly for limited property-condemnation power to develop 181 acres as an industrial park responds to grassroot concerns.
Virginia Beach and other Virginia localities are empowered to condemn property for public purposes such as roads, schools, parks and recreation. But no Virginia locality may take private property for economic development unless the state legislature says it can. That restriction is prudent.
Governmental condemnation of private property for any public purpose can be touchy. But it is often necessary when governments and owners cannot come to terms or the owners of specific properties are unidentified. The U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights mandates ``just compensation'' to owners for property taken for public purposes. Inevitably, many owners of property in the way of public projects resent being compelled to give it up for any amount or money or believe they weren't justly compensated when it's gone. Confrontations - frequently colorful - between governments and owners who refuse to yield are not uncommon.
Thirty-three-year-old Virginia Beach - the commonwealth's most-populous city - takes private property as needed to extend its road, street, park and recreation networks. But only this week has City Council directed the city attorney to draft proposed legislation to enable it to condemn real estate for economic development - and that power is to apply solely to the Burton Station section adjoining Norfolk International Airport.
Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk through their redevelopment-and-housing authorities may exercise ``eminent domain'' to further economic development. But neither City Council nor the citizenry is disposed at this time to welcome such sweeping condemnation power in Virginia Beach. City Council does want sharply limited condemnation authority to prepare Burton Station acreage for industrial use.
Burton Station is one of a dozen rundown nighborhoods that City Council set out two decades ago to improve. Tens of millions of federal (Housing and Urban Development) dollars later, 11 neighborhoods have been upgraded. The upgrading benefits the inhabitaants of the targeted neighborhoods and the city as a whole.
Burton Station has not been upgraded. The neighborhood is in a ``clear zone'' so denominated because aircraft using Norfolk International Airport fly low over it. There's no HUD money for enhancing residential areas in clear zones.
But land close to airports lends itself to industrial uses. So the Beach has spent $2.5 million in recent years buying Burton Station property and resettling several of the neighborhood's households. However, the owners of 15 properties cannot be located. Meanwhile, the Beach continues to negotiate with identified owners to buy their Burton Station real estate at fair-market prices.
Burton Station is sparsely populated and poor. The Beach is trying to treat all owners of property there equitably. Under the legislation that the city will request, no Burton Station property could be condemned without the approval of at least 8 (two-thirds) of the council's 11 members. The council also has agreed to require a two-thirds vote to ask the legislature for any expansion of condemnation-for-economic-development authority beyond Burton Station.
In its limited request, City Council is being mindful of public sentiment without neglecting the city's economic-development responsibility. Good. by CNB