THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 30, 1995 TAG: 9512300361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
There's no disputing that Burton Station, squeezed between Northampton Boulevard and Norfolk International Airport, is a neighborhood fallen on hard times.
Burton Station was once carefully tended by the descendants of former slaves, who had been given their land by the owner who freed them.
But the local church and half the old-timers have moved out, taking much of the spirit and life of the community with them.
Many landowners who grew up in the neighborhood, or whose parents did, now live in tonier subdivisions, with city water and well-paved roads, where their windows aren't rattled by nearby takeoffs and landings of airplanes.
At a meeting meant to bring them together, officials - including most members of City Council - wanted to talk about the neighborhood's future. The property owners insisted on recalling the past.
City officials hope to turn the neighborhood into an industrial park that will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of tax dollars. To do that, city officials said, they need the power to condemn Burton Station property. And they're preparing to ask the General Assembly for that power early next month.
For the past three years, the city has been buying lots and relocating neighborhood residents. It has already spent $2 million and budgeted $4 million more for the 181-acre site.
But the 100 owners who attended Tuesday's meeting wanted ``a fair shake.''
The neighborhood's condition is an affront to their heritage and hard work, they insisted. They blamed decades of decisions bylocal governments.
First, 55 years ago, the airport became an unwelcome next-door neighbor.
Then, in 1965, an airport expansion forced out many residents with only 90 days' notice.
In the early 1970s, Virginia Beach committed to fixing up the roads and running water and sewer lines to the neighborhood, but that work was never done, because of restrictions on development in the ``crash zone.''
Then, also because of the crash zone, the city tightened land-use restrictions, preventing residents from expanding or fixing up their homes.
``There is no trust here,'' lifelong Burton Station resident Jackie Morgan told the council.
``Because before, black people have been cheated,'' she said. ``We don't want to fight anymore, we want to come together and be fair. . . . All we're asking for is a fair profit off of our land.''
No one seemed unwilling to sell to the city. The problem appeared to be the different definitions the council and landowners had of fairness.
To the city, a ``fair price'' is set by an appraiser who compares the site to others nearby that have sold recently.
To the landowners, a ``fair price'' is what the property would have been worth had the airport authority and city not devalued it; or what it will be worth one day when the city puts new infrastructure in and sells space in the office park.
``Fair market value for whom?'' one property owner wondered aloud at the meeting, held at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Baker Road. ``What (a city official) offered me for my house, I couldn't even buy a home in Aragona Village for. Then, he had the gall to ask me if I wanted a small mortgage.''
Council members and other city officials said they feel they have bent over backward to benefit Burton Station residents.
To build trust in the neighborhood, the city decided to work with willing sellers first, hoping they would spread the good word.
Officials were disappointed this week that those pleased with their relocation deals had stayed away from the meeting, or remained silent as other property owners spoke out against the city.
Thanks in part to federal relocation money, residents who moved out are living better than they were before.
Homeowners must be relocated into houses with an equal number of bedrooms, in a safe neighborhood, even if the value of their old house wasn't high enough to let them afford the new one.
The city has paid about $1 a square foot for land valued on the tax rolls at about 30 cents a square foot.
But property owners Tuesday night said they would not accept the deals offered to those who have already sold. And council members said they would try harder to find mutually acceptable figures.
Council member Louisa M. Strayhorn said she plans to ask the council to delay its decision, scheduled for Tuesday. She hopes to give city officials another week to work with property owners.
The council will hold a public hearing on the issue Tuesday.
``We're here trying to find out what you want,'' Strayhorn told the crowd. ``You're making it very clear what you want.''
The city is willing to work with property owners, but if the differences can't be resolved easily, the council wants to be able to force a fair agreement in court.
That's why the council is expected to ask the General Assembly to allow it to condemn property in Burton Station to promote economic development.
Without condemnation, council member Louis R. Jones said, he is afraid one or two people will hold the redevelopment plan hostage.
``What we want this condemnation for is to know, in the end, we can finish this project,'' Jones, who led the meeting, said Tuesday. ``It's the only way you're going to bring the project to an end. We can't help the remaining people in Burton Station unless we have condemnation.''
Condemnation also would help the city deal with title problems, common in the neighborhood because so much land has passed down through generations.
The city will be able to condemn property without identifying all the rightful owners, which sometimes top 100.
Property owners who can show clear title to a portion of the land may also get paid faster, according to city officials, because they will not have to find all their distant relatives before a deal can go through.
And landowners stand to get a better price through condemnation than through outright purchase.
Jones, a funeral home owner and landowner, told the crowd that he always pushes government agencies to condemnation when they want his land for a road or other infrastructure project.
But both city officials and the Burton Station landowners left Tuesday's meeting frustrated.
``The big problem we have here, I think, is mistrust,'' James C. Lawson, the city's real estate agent, said this week. ``I'm not sure we're ever going to overcome that.
``I think that there's an obvious division in the community,'' he continued. ``There are some people who are ready to move. Others who are content to stay there, they've got nice homes.''
Fred Cross Jr., who grew up in Burton Station, said it used to be ``one of the best residential neighborhoods in Virginia Beach.''
But for more than two decades, the city would not let residents expand or add on to their homes, because they were in the airport's crash zone.
``You could not even build on your own land, your own house that your grandfather and father sweated to build. How do you think that made us feel?'' Cross' younger brother, Kenneth Christopher Antonio Cross, asked the council.
``You denied us for 21 years, but you collected our taxes,'' Cross, 33, said. ``In 1965, the airport (authority) gave my mother 90 days to move out .
``No matter what you offer, it won't be enough.'' ILLUSTRATION: VP Map
Burton Station
JIM WALKER
The Virginian-Pilot
Jackie Morgan, outside her home on Burton Station Road, says, ``We
don't want to fight anymore, we want to come together and be fair. .
. . All we're asking for is a fair profit off of our land.''
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB