THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512220207
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Three City Council members have proposed a new voting district map that they think retains the best of other proposals and protects the interests of farmers.
Their map would place all of the rural, southern part of the city into one district; keep all of the resort strip in one district; and prevent competition among present members of council.
A new map is necessary, because the General Assembly decided earlier this year that the council districts should be redrawn.
Now, the seven borough council members represent districts that range in population from under 1,000 to more than 150,000. The legislature required that those boroughs be equalized, with roughly 53,000 people in each.
The three at-large council spots and the mayor's seat will not be affected by the change.
Council members W.W. ``Billy'' Harrison Jr., Barbara M. Henley and John A. Baum said they dislike the General Assembly's requirement, but believe their map makes the best of a bad situation.
The three basically tinkered with a proposal made this fall by City Treasurer John T. Atkinson. Atkinson's plan was based on several ideas:
That the city's assets, such as the oceanfront, the rural boroughs and the Pembroke-area business district, should be divided among as many council members as possible, so more members would be concerned with the fate of those assets;
That present council members should not be pitted against each other through redistricting, causing them to make decisions based on their own political futures rather than the best interest of the city.
The Harrison-Henley-Baum plan keeps those basic premises for most of the city.
Atkinson's plan had sliced the southern part of the city in half, so there would still be two council members responsible for the rural area. Because the farmland is so unpopulated, compared to the northern part of the city, however, those two districts had to stretch upwards far into the present Kempsville and Princess Anne boroughs.
But Henley, who represents the rural Pungo borough, said most of her constituents would rather have one representative who must pay attention to farmers than two whose interests will be divided.
The southern district would encompass most of the current Princess Anne borough and all of the Pungo and Blackwater boroughs, and will be extremely difficult to govern, Henley said.
The council plan would also change Atkinson's proposal to divide the resort strip among two districts. Harrison said he thought it made more sense to keep the strip intact, than to put several blocks of it into a district with other interests.
It also corrects a mistake Atkinson made by placing Henley and Councilman Robert K. Dean into the same district. Although Baum and Henley said they didn't mind living in the same rural district, if their plan is adopted, Harrison said he didn't want Dean to be in that district, too.
The council is expected to pick one of the proposals in January.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB