THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040420
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 124 lines
ON THE BALLOT: Is there a need for the redevelopment and housing authority to be activated in the city of Virginia Beach?
WHAT IT MEANS:
The authority would have power to build public housing, rehabilitate declining areas and condemn ``blighted'' neighborhoods. City officials see an authority as their only chance to condemn the Burton Station neighborhood, but the local NAACP says it would be an assault on the poor, especially blacks.
Voters will decide this fall whether to give the city power to condemn Burton Station and other neighborhoods targeted for redevelopment.
The city council unanimously agreed Tuesday to put a question on the Nov. 5 ballot asking Beach residents whether they want to authorize a Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Such an authority would have the power to condemn land in blighted neighborhoods to eliminate trouble spots and promote economic development.
The council views a redevelopment authority as its last resort for finishing its work in Burton Station.
The council has been trying for years to buy up the land in Burton Station, install city water and sewer and resell it as a job-producing industrial park.
The neighborhood, squeezed between Northampton Boulevard and Norfolk International Airport, has fallen into disrepair because airport regulations prohibited city services from being extended and discouraged homeowners from keeping up their land.
The community was one of the first areas in Virginia Beach owned by blacks. Most of today's owners, descendants of those freed slaves, have opposed the city's efforts to take their land, saying the prices they have been offered would not compensate them for their loss.
The council, which already has spent $2 million buying properties in the neighborhood, has tried several times to convince the General Assembly to give it the power to condemn land there without a redevelopment authority.
But because of public opposition and the dissent of some council members, the state legislature has refused to give the city the go-ahead.
E. George Minns, president of the Virginia Beach NAACP, said he views the push for an authority as an attack on poor people in general and blacks in particular.
``We will fight it tooth and nail all the way to the nine folks who wear black robes,'' Minns said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court.
``I didn't know we elected (the council) to be developers and realtors, I thought we elected them to be leaders,'' he said. ``If they were so good at development, then how come Corporate Landing isn't booming?''
The Corporate Landing Industrial Park, developed by the city, opened in 1990 but didn't get its first tenant until last year.
The 11 Council members said in their resolution Tuesday that they do not plan to use the authority's power to create public housing in Virginia Beach, though they might take advantage of regulations designed to speed rehabilitation of foundering neighborhoods.
Under state law, the council can call for a public vote on the need for a redevelopment and housing authority, but it cannot campaign for or against approval.
Beach residents, however, are free to support or oppose the measure, and a number of civic activists and Burton Station supporters are already voicing opposition to the proposal.
``I think we should treat people the way we want to be treated,'' Rosetta E. Valentine, recently relocated out of Burton Station, said Tuesday. ``Would you want someone coming into your community with condemnation?''
Leslie K. Fenlon, past president of the Council of Civic Organizations, an umbrella group of civic leagues in the Beach, said his group has not yet taken a position on the need for a redevelopment authority. But he thinks it's a bad idea.
``I sympathize a great deal with those people in Burton Station who won't sell but who have been there for generations,'' he said. ``We can pay them a lot for their property, and we can relocate them, but it just doesn't mean the same thing - that's special property for them.''
The CCO will dedicate its October 9 meeting to a forum on the pros and cons of the ballot question. The meeting will be held in the City Council's Chambers, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The Council spent about 90 minutes Tuesday grilling the city attorney about details of a redevelopment authority's powers and then approved the ballot question 11-0 with almost no discussion.
The Beach is the only city in the area and one of the few in the state without a Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
Council members said Tuesday that they hope to avoid some of the problems created by redevelopment authorities in neighboring cities by promising not to build public housing and by staffing the authority with current city employees, instead of creating a new bureaucracy. MEMO: ABOUT THE AGENCY
What is a Redevelopment and Housing Authority?
By state law, every locality in Virginia has an authority, but only
voters can activate it. The authority can build and maintain public
housing, condemn blighted neighborhoods, and promote rehabilitation of
other areas in decline.
Who would run the authority?
The Virginia Beach authority would be run by a board of five to nine
members appointed by the City Council and staffed mostly by current city
employees who would continue to report to the city manager. Norfolk's
authority operates differently, with a separate staff, but Beach
officials said they want to create as little new bureaucracy as
possible. The City Council would have to approve any money spent by the
authority.
How would it be used to redevelop property?
The authority would have to draw up an area plan that would be
presented to the public and approved by the City Council. Any property
within the designated area would be subject to condemnation, even if
that particular home or business was in good repair. Anyone whose
property is taken would be given fair market value and has the right to
challenge the seizure in court.
What are the Council's plans for the authority?
The Council said in its resolution Tuesday that it did not plan to
own or operate public housing in Virginia Beach, even though the
creation of a redevelopment authority would give it that power. The
Council would like to use the authority to help it transform the Burton
Station neighborhood, adjacent to Norfolk International Airport, into an
industrial park. Several council members also have talked about using
the redevelopment authority to promote economic development elsewhere in
the city by condemning land at the Oceanfront for a new convention
center and hotel, and along the route of a proposed light rail line
connecting Norfolk with the resort area.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL VIRGINIA BEACH
REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY by CNB