THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 TAG: 9604100358
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The City Council on Tuesday killed a proposed Target superstore at Princess Anne Road and Lynnhaven Parkway and cut short plans for turning the corner into a retail hub.
The 9-1 vote centered on the wisdom of allowing Target access to Princess Anne Road, a request that later blossomed into a protracted discussion on the future of a key city thoroughfare.
Council members turned down the chance to earn about $500,000 in new annual tax revenue from the store to instead prevent Princess Anne Road from becoming another Virginia Beach Boulevard or Holland Road.
Tuesday's vote also followed by about six weeks a decision to allow Wal-Mart to build a 190,000-square-foot superstore on an adjacent corner at the same intersection. The Arkansas-based retailer now will have sole possession of a potentially lucrative retail location. Kmart, another chief competitor, is constructing a superstore about two miles away on Holland Road.
Target's defeat also provides a partial victory to city planners who envision the region south of the center as a gateway to a series of planned recreational and educational amenities, including the amphitheater under construction there.
City planners said that acres of asphalt and the presence of so-called ``giant boxes'' of the variety envisioned by developers of the Target and the Wal-Mart would change forever the area's semi-rural character for the worse.
Vice Mayor W.D. ``Will'' Sessoms, an at-large councilman, cast the only vote for Target's request. Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf, recovering from breast cancer surgery, was absent.
James Tucker, who represented Target's parent company, the Dayton Hudson Corp., and who did not testify, said he was disappointed in the vote but still optimistic about locating a store in Virginia Beach.
``I'm sorry that things didn't go our way today,'' he said. ``We are still interested in the area of Virginia Beach.
``It was unfortunate that we got this far and didn't get the site. We may be back. We hope to be back.''
Target's first store in South Hampton Roads is scheduled to open this summer in the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake.
R. Edward Bourdon Jr., the attorney who represented the company's efforts before the Beach council, argued his case on several fronts that sought to portray his client as a responsible corporate citizen that would enhance not only community life but also the city's coffers.
As it stands, the nearly vacant parcel, partly owned by Word of Life Church, generates $181 a year in tax revenue. With a Target on the site, the city could have collected at least $500,000 a year, he said.
But money wasn't the issue for the city. The question was whether Target could have access - a curb cut in the parlance of planners - on Princess Anne Road. The city's long-term plans call for minimal curb cuts there, as they would tend to slow traffic and create an environment like those on Virginia Beach Boulevard or Holland Road. by CNB