THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601180127
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
After wrestling with the problem of unsightly vending machines along Oceanfront rights of way for nearly a decade, the Resort Area Advisory Commission still hasn't seen the last of them.
The panel, a citizens advisory group charged with overseeing resort projects and activities, convinced the City Council in 1988 to adopt a package of code changes designed to rid the Oceanfront of ugly signs, overhead wires, sidewalk merchandise, soft drink machines and garish decor.
One was an ordinance requiring resort businesses to hide, cover up or rid themselves of outdoor soft drink machines within sight of public sidewalks or the Boardwalk.
The code change worked for a while. Soft drink machines briefly disappeared from the entrances of hotels, shops and restaurants or were hidden by screens of varying materials and designs - some of them slapped together with minimal workmanship or care.
But recently they've been creeping back into public view, and advisory commissioners decided last fall to tighten the wording on the ordinance.
At the request of the advisory commission, Andy Friedman, director of housing and neighborhood preservation for the city, has revised the ordinance again. His efforts will be forwarded to the City Council with some modifications.
Basically, said Friedman, the changes would:
Limit to one the number of soft drink machines that a single business in the resort strip can have outdoors.
Drop entirely the requirement for an enclosure for vending machines because, said Friedman, the old requirements were not feasible and not clearly defined.
Prohibit vending machines from facing the Boardwalk ``or any street or plaza or any improved connector street plaza in the RT1-Resort District.''
Require all vending machines to bear the names and phone numbers of the owners.
Some commissioners, including Dawson Taylor and chairman Roger Newill, said something should be done to keep the machines out of sight.
``We ought to change the language,'' Taylor insisted. ``If we don't want 'em out there, get rid of them.''
Added Newill, ``If you're trying to say they shouldn't be visible from within 15 feet, just say it. I guess what we're saying is we don't want to see your vending machines out there.''
What the revised code does not address is the proliferation of newspaper vending machines at the Oceanfront, noted Robert H. Vakos, new chairman of the city's Planning Commission and a spectator at the commission meeting.
``After you get done with this you ought to address all the newspaper vending machines tied together out there,'' he said.
The city has been wrestling with the legality of ordering newspaper vending machines from public rights of way as long as it has been struggling with the soft drink machine issue. The biggest hurdle facing city attorneys is how to rid Oceanfront streets of the newspaper vending machine eyesores without running afoul of the First Amendment, which protects the right of free speech and the press.
So far they have been unsuccessful. by CNB