
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997               TAG: 9703060318

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  107 lines

PRIME COMMERCIAL PROPERTY IS COMING AVAILABLE ACTIVIST SEEKS OCEANFRONT PARK BUT ONE CITY OFFICIAL PUSHES PARKING LOT FOR 31ST STREET TRACT

The Oceanfront has the space for a new park for picknicking, soaking up sea air or listening to concert music.

All that's needed to create the park is grass-roots support, say Maury Jackson, a civic activist and retired investment broker, and a group of resort planners.

The city already has two such Oceanfront parks - at 24th and 17th streets - and both enjoy widespread popularity as locations for concerts, ethnic, food and beverage festivals, or just plain relaxing on spring and summer days.

The object of the recent preservation effort is a 150- by 300-foot lot at the east end of 31st Street - also known as Laskin Road - that overlooks the ocean.

At least one city official is proposing that the land be converted this spring into a parking lot, which would generate revenue rather than cost the city money.

But Jackson, who 10 years ago spearheaded a move to save a lot at 24th Street for a public park, is trying to convince city officials to set aside the 31st Street lot for public rather than commercial use.

With that goal in mind, he has fired off letters to civic groups calling for prompt action.

``Citizens are urged to get busy with letters and personal contact and convince the City Council that the 31st Street area should be a public park,'' he wrote. ``We certainly don't want an asphalt-paved parking lot there or even another monolithic motel.''

The Resort Area Advisory Commission, a citizens' group charged with overseeing resort development and activities, also has jumped on the preservation bandwagon. Commission members decided last month to form a task force to study future uses of the property, which is deemed too small for a full-scale hotel.

Commission chairman C. Cheyney Cole Jr. said commission members want to ``see more open land'' at the Oceanfront and are trying to convince the City Council to set aside the lot for public recreation.

``Eventually, something's going to go there,'' he said. ``It's not going to be a parking lot forever.''

There are some obstacles to converting the property into a park, however.

The tract is considered prime commercial property, ripe for development, and it's owned by the city's Economic Development Authority. The tract has been on the market since 1988, when it was purchased by the Economic Development Authority for $3.5 million. Two years ago, the authority secured a $6 million loan from the city to pay off the debt on the property, but the city holds a deed of trust on it.

The future of the property is in the hands of City Council, said Donald Maxwell, the city's economic development director.

Jackson, Cole and some advisory commissioners want the City Council to forgive the debt on the property and to convert the site into another open, grassy vista to the sea.

Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said she is aware of these sentiments, but the council has yet to discuss the lot's future. The proposal to set aside the debt might face rough sledding, she said, adding: ``I'm not sure that's going to float because we need to get back the money invested in it.''

Since 1988, the lot has attracted little interest from developers, but has been used alternately for parking, carnivals and, for the past 18 months, as a temporary site for a portable ice skating rink, known as Starship Ice.

The rink is owned by Allan B. Harvie Jr., a Richmond businessman and former owner of the Richmond Renegades, a minor league hockey team.

The operation has occupied the lot under a use permit which expires at the end of March.

At that time, the rink is to move out, and the city intends to open a parking lot.

The lot could accommodate up to 130 cars and would generate a little more than $100,000 in annual revenue for the city, according to Henry Ruiz, the city's Parking Systems Management director. Of that sum, the Development Authority would receive $70,000 in rent money. The city lost about $30,000 last year by leasing the lot to Starship Ice.

Ruiz said he intends to use $16,000 available to him in the city budget to pave the lot, then convert it into a parking lot by early May. The lot would be temporary. ``There'll be some better use for it down the line,'' he said.

The lot has a rich history in the resort area as a park.

Seaside Park was established there in 1906 and at one time included an amusement park, bath house and dance hall that served as a hub of Oceanfront entertainment. It operated as such until a fire Oct. 11, 1955, destroyed most of it. It was rebuilt and operated on a smaller scale until it closed in 1986.

A small summertime arcade and roller rink are all that remains as reminders of what the property once was.

The City Council spent $1.8 million in 1986 to acquire the lot at 24th Street after a group of citizens led by Jackson and others raised $300,000 toward the purchase price.

The city spent more money in 1993 to furnish the property with benches and a stage.

A smaller park at 17th Street was created in 1995 through a public-private partnership between the city and a hotel owner. The owner tore down the hotel to make way for a Dairy Queen.

The city agreed to rezone the property in exchange for the owner agreeing to turn half of the property into a public park, build a performance stage and operate public restrooms there. ILLUSTRATION: [Color VP map]

31st Street lot

[For copy of map, see microfilm]

[Photo]

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Maury Jackson, a Virginia Beach civic activist and retired

investment broker, is seeking public support for a proposed

community park at 31st Street and Atlantic Avenue behind him on the

Oceanfront.