DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997                TAG: 9703040257

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   63 lines

SIGNS ARE A NICE OFFER, BEACH SAYS, BUT NOT A PRETTY SIGHT

Resort planners know that what you say isn't always as important as how you say it.

That's why several members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission aren't thrilled with the idea of accepting about 20 surplus electronic message signs from the state to help visitors navigate often congested Oceanfront streets.

Simply put, they worry that the blinking billboards are ugly.

At the risk of looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth, members of the advisory panel responsible for dressing up the Oceanfront say the windfall wouldn't be compatible with the $40 million-plus in improvements undertaken in the past 10 years.

``It sounds like some 21st century thing, with neon lights flashing all over the place,'' said Eric Schwartz, a member of the city's Resort Area Advisory Commission. ``I don't think it's a good idea.''

Fellow commissioner Timothy E. Barrow agreed.

``I don't think it would convey the right image,'' he said. ``We've spent a lot of money on signage systems and lights at the resort, and it (new signs) should be consistent with that.''

At issue are items called ``variable message signs.'' They are 3 1/2-by-12-foot electronic boards that are being offered to the city by the Virginia Department of Transportation as a tool to direct tourists to available parking spaces, to steer them clear of heavily congested streets or perhaps to alert them to special Oceanfront events.

They would be permanent fixtures, either anchored in metal brackets at ground level, or atop 10- to-12-foot poles and they would be visible to motorists entering the resort from the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, Shore Drive, Laskin Road or Virginia Beach Boulevard.

The signs are similar to those overhanging the HOV lanes on the Expressway and Interstate 64, except these would be erected beside roadways.

Messages would be programmed by a central computer, which city traffic engineers say could be located in the 2nd Police Precinct at the Oceanfront.

VDOT intended to use the message boards at the approaches to the toll plaza of the Dulles Road project in Northern Virginia, said Ken Wester, assistant director of operations for the department's Northern Virginia District.

But before the signs could be erected, highway officials decided they were not suited to the task and decided to offer them - about 50 in all - to any community or agency in the state that could put them to use, Wester said.

The Resort Area Advisory Commission, which was told of the availability of message boards last month, will take a longer look at the state's offer.

David R. Hager, chairman of the commission's transportation and parking subcommittee, has asked city traffic engineer Robert K. Gey to make a formal presentation March 13 to the commission.

``I believe that once the (commission) receives a detailed briefing on the enhancement of the traffic circulation system in the oceanfront area and support its implementation for the 1997 resort season,'' Hager wrote Gey in a Feb. 16 letter.

Commissioner Barrow said the city should not act hastily:

``It's very important to look at it very critically.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Photo]

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

A message board, right, rises above the westbound lanes of

Interstate 64 near Indian River Road. The state Department of

Transportation has offered to give 20 such signs to Virginia Beach.

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