THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9604300176
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Complaining that many outdoor public phones have become sites for criminal activity and community disruption, members of the Mayor's Ocean View Committee are working with the city to reduce the number of illegally placed phones in that neighborhood.
With the help of the Department of Planning and Codes Administration, approximately 73 phones have been targeted as not conforming to zoning codes, 32 of which have been removed. Residents say the policy is a step in the right direction.
``These phones have been springing up all over the place in these high-density apartments,'' said East Ocean View resident and committee member James Janata. ``They were putting up phones on the street, and suspicious people began hanging around. The city is making progress, though. The phone across from my house has disappeared.''
The zoning ordinance prohibiting illegally placed phones generally mandates that no exterior public pay phone can be placed in the front yard of a residence and that phones in residential districts must be in an enclosed building or adjacent to a principal building and out of view of any major thoroughfare.
The committee, a group of Ocean View business and civic leaders that works with the city to improve the neighborhood, has had the illegally placed phone problem on its agenda for several months. But it's a situation that is not easily fixed. Individuals can buy a pay phone easily from a vendor and have it set up in a short period of time.
``Anyone can own a public pay phone,'' said Leonard Newcomb, zoning services manager for the city. ``We've removed 32, but 22 new phones have been put up since. . . . They can be quite profitable to the owners and the vendors. Some vendors have been cooperative in removing the phones; others have not.''
To better police the situation, Newcomb and city zoning staff are taking a new approach. They hope to set up a permit system with Bell Atlantic, the company that provides hook-up service to all pay phones in the area.
``We first started out identifying the amount of phones, who owned them and how they got there,'' Newcomb explained. ``But after chasing the owners and vendors around it became very clear we had to cut them off at the source. What we would like from Bell Atlantic is that they get an approved zoning certificate from the city before they provide hook-up service. That way we can check the site and ensure it's in conformance with regulations.''
Newcomb said he will be working with the company on establishing a permit system within the next several months.
Meanwhile, Norfolk Police Lt. V.R. Simmons said that Bell Atlantic has been aiding the police department by changing many suspect phones to an outgoing-calls-only mode, making drug transactions more difficult.
The zoning staff has been focusing on illegally placed pay phones in Ocean View but plans to expand the effort to all parts of the city in the future. by CNB