DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997                TAG: 9703160045

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:  117 lines

CHURCH WON, BUT DID SOUTH NORFOLK? COMMERCIAL SPACE SHOULD BE RESERVED, CITY LEADERS ARGUE.

Can one neighborhood serve both God and mammon?

In South Norfolk, it's just not that simple a choice between church and commerce.

Not many here are against churches.

But the 83-member New Assembly Church of Deliverance's plan to convert a Park Avenue storefront into a place of worship has attracted the ire of leaders of the South Norfolk community revitalization effort.

They say the neighborhood's precious commercial space should be reserved for businesses, which will add to the tax base and create jobs.

The city Planning Commission was not swayed by such concerns Wednesday when it approved, by a 7-2 vote, the church's use permit for its 1711 Park Ave. home.

``This is just a slap in the face to this organization, to the citizens, to the city itself,'' said Anne Tregembo, a civic activist born and reared in South Norfolk and member of an South Norfolk Revitalization Commission.

``For the first time in 25 years, every (city) department is focusing on bring new businesses to South Norfolk. And then this,'' she added.

In a way, the conflict is a microcosm of the struggle to revive troubled South Norfolk: the boarded-up building, like several in this neighborhood, had been vacant for two years. And the trouble is not just finding tenants for these buildings, but finding the right tenants.

``I work in this area,'' said the church's pastor, James T. Porter. ``So I know. But some people don't realize what we can do about revitalization.''

With single-family homes nearby and the Cascade Park baseball diamond across the street, Porter said his church members found that there is more than one way to revitalize South Norfolk.

``Business is good, but we can save them money when we save the children from our jails and help the city and the police,'' he said after Wednesday's commission vote.

But some area old-timers, who have seen blight replace boom, argue that this commercial strip desperately needs new taxable businesses with added jobs for the community. They can't understand why the city's economic development department, when consulted by city planners about possible uses for the property, decided not to help find a suitable business tenant.

``We have enough storefront churches in South Norfolk,'' John B. Gibson Jr., president of the South Norfolk Civic League, told the commission Wednesday.

Planning Commission member Clifton D. Cabarras defended the New Assembly Church of Deliverance's plan, reminding all that ``this building is being leased, not purchased. . . . It's not the end-all.''

Only commission members Gladys A. Wilfore and Sanny S. Davenport voted against the use permit.

The City Council should consider the Planning Commission's vote on New Assembly at its April 15 meeting, a planning official said Friday.

This still-simmering issue is critical for South Norfolk: How does the community balance a willing tenant for a vacant building with the need for economic stimulation in a struggling neighborhood?

The strip of adjoined storefronts on Park Avenue's 1700 block resides on an Oakdale neighborhood block with a long small-business past.

Greenough & Company Inc. pioneered the district with a hardware-turned-building supplies store in the late 1940s at 1711 Park Ave., according to local historian and ``History of South Norfolk'' author Raymond L. Harper.

``It later burned to the ground,'' Harper said. ``But there was also Park Lane bowling with duck pins and smaller balls - the ones with no holes.''

After current owner Charles P. Pool leased a small section of the building for six years for his restaurant, The Captain's Chair, he bought out the entire place in 1975 and expanded his eatery, renaming it Butterfield Stage.

``It was a variety of things after that, a discotheque, then country-western music,'' Pool said. ``But when my kids got older, I started renting it out.''

But the tenants, first County Club then Rafael's, couldn't pay the bills or had liquor license problems. And so the dance floor lights eventually fell low.

``Let's face it: A lot of people don't want to go to South Norfolk. South Norfolk is not a Greenbrier,'' Pool said. ``Not that it's a bad neighborhood. It has lots of good people.

``Today's businesses want to be in a more visible place. Park Avenue or even Poindexter is not like Military Highway. My attraction was to second-rate or third-rate people.''

Pool explained that meant courtesy calls from people interested in a teen night club or a topless and bottomless dance lounge.

``I wouldn't let them come,'' he said. ``I grew up on 21st Street. I respect people around there.''

Pool ultimately liked the idea of a church as a renter.

So New Assembly's new church has no steeple, just a rectangular string of three connected storefronts stretching down the block. The cinderblock walls contain boarded-up windows, a knocked-out florescent sign and a metal bracket for a missing air-conditioner. A lonely sign for the South Norfolk Flea Market and Auction hangs on one corner.

One tree has even sprouted up between two of the connected buildings.

Undaunted by the building's condition, the church moved into it last year from a small church on Hoover Avenue around the corner. But they didn't have the proper permits to run a church there.

City inspectors visited in February and listed the violations: unsafe wiring, dripping water from roof leaks, malfunctioning exit lights and emergency lighting, hazardous gas and kerosene heaters inside the building.

Then they kicked the church out.

``We had the electric and gas turned off,'' said city code enforcement administrator Robert R. Smalley.

``They just didn't seem to understand the dangers.''

When extensive repairs are completed, the church expects to hold about 100 people for Sunday service. An idea for a daily child care center, for about 20 children and 10 staff members, was withdrawn before this week's Planning Commission vote.

Still, at a meeting this week of community leaders in South Norfolk, representatives of the South Norfolk Civic League, the Southside Civic League, the South Norfolk Revitalization Commission and the South Norfolk Business Consortium vowed to oppose New Assembly's new address.

``I can see where they would want a church. Who wouldn't?'' said Jane McClanahan, co-owner of Cliff's Equipment Repair, just down Park Avenue from the New Assembly's future site.

``Just not here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map

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