THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030409
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Trying to rebuild trust with a community repeatedly hurt by local government, the City Council on Tuesday indefinitely postponed its plans to redevelop the Burton Station neighborhood.
Council member Louis R. Jones, who proposed the deferral, said the city needed more time to make sure it was offering property owners fair compensation for their land, which has been in their families, in many cases, for generations.
``There's considerable question as to whether or not the city has been offering the folks in Burton Station fair market value,'' he continued. ``I'm not saying we haven't, but a large number of people say we haven't. I don't think we should make further offers that are going to do nothing but insult these people.''
The city has already spent more than $2 million relocating 23 homeowners and buying seven empty lots in the area, sandwiched between Norfolk International Airport and Northampton Boulevard.
The council, which voted unanimously, did not kill the project outright, but said the redevelopment plan would die if landowners continued their opposition. The city had hoped to transform the neighborhood, now rundown and half-empty, into an industrial park that would create 7,000 jobs and add millions of dollars to the city's tax base.
At the root of the problem, is the city's and the landowner's differing views of a ``fair deal.''
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 it not be devalued by government action; or what it will be worth one day when the city puts new infrastructure in and sells space in the office park.
``You're going to take the property and give us exactly what you want,'' said Elizabeth Bradley, who attended the meeting with her two brothers and a sister-in-law, ``and from what I've seen of the property you've acquired, what you want is not much.''
The city has offered about $1 per square foot for property valued on the tax rolls for about 30 cents per square foot. One resident said Tuesday she thought the land was worth more than $4 per square foot.
``We're not saying that you owe us millions. But don't stiff us,'' Kenneth Christopher Antonio Cross, Bradley's brother, told the council.
In accepting Jones' motion, the council also indefinitely postponed any request for condemnation power in Burton Station or elsewhere in the city.
Jones said he thought the council had made a mistake in singling out Burton Station for condemnation. The council had considered asking the General Assembly for broader condemnation power, but limited the request to cover only Burton Station when some council members balked at the broader proposals.
Both Tuesday afternoon and at a meeting last week, owners told the council horror stories of transgressions against them and their families, dating back to 1939.
Then, the neighborhood was not consulted when Norfolk decided to locate its new airport practically in their back yards. The airport has eaten up more and more of the neighborhood in the intervening years, and its proximity to the houses derailed several city efforts to redevelop the neighborhood.
In the early 1970s, after promising to help bring sewer and water systems to the neighborhood, the city told residents the airport's ``crash zone'' meant they couldn't add on or make significant changes to their homes. So, for 21 years, houses in Burton Station basically sat and rotted.
``The fact that Burton is in its present state is because you never gave Burton its just due,'' said Annie Hawkins, who has lived in the neighborhood since she was first married.
Although some of the landowners remained skeptical about the council's actions, most of those who spoke out in defense of Burton Station seemed pleased Tuesday.
``I think City Council did the most dignified thing that could be done to put us on a course of common ground,'' said E. George Minns, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. ``I'm glad with this outcome. It at least allows time for good-faith efforts on the part of the city.'' by CNB