DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997               TAG: 9703180282

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   78 lines

PARKING LOT OR PUBLIC PARK? ADVISERS APPEAR ON COLLISION COURSE WITH BEACH PROPOSAL

Resort planners want the city to abandon a plan to convert a vacant Oceanfront tract into a parking lot and instead preserve the site as a public park.

Thus, the short- and long-term goals of the Resort Area Advisory Commission and a group of concerned citizens appear to be on a collision course with city plans to provide 130 parking spaces for beachgoers this summer.

Henry Ruiz, head of the city's Parking Systems Management office, says he plans to seek a city use permit for the parking operation in April, then spend $16,000 to pave the tract and paint parking lines.

He wants the lot ready by the first week in May and plans to appear before the Planning Commission and the City Council in April to reach that goal.

As for a recent move to change course and preserve the lot as public open space, Ruiz said, ``If this is going to be a passive park with just a few benches on it, that's fine. But if it's going to be more active, for concerts and things like that, then you're going to need parking to go with it.''

The tract, a 150- by 300-foot plot at the east end of Laskin Road - or 31st Street - has been on the market since 1988, when it was bought by the city's Economic Development Authority for $3.5 million.

It has attracted little attention from commercial developers since then, but it has been used alternately as a parking lot, carnival site and a temporary location for a portable skating rink owned by Allan B. Harvie Jr., a Richmond businessman.

The rink, known as Starship Ice, has occupied the property for the past year under a use permit granted by the City Council. The permit will expire March 31, and Harvie is expected to take his operation elsewhere.

Once the rink leaves, Ruiz and his staff plan to take over the site again, pave it and turn it into a parking lot - at least for the summer.

``From our previous experience, we found that it was used mostly by beachgoers,'' Ruiz said. ``They found it convenient. They'd get out of their cars, take their coolers and their beach chairs and six kids and walk the short distance to the beach.''

``Two years ago we made $118,000 from the lot, and we expect to do the same this year,'' he said.

Resort planners, however, have other ideas, which they plan to forward to the City Council. The council will have the final say on the matter.

Advisory commission members endorsed a plan last week to convert the lot into a public park for both the ``long and short term.'' They also voted to ask the city, which holds a deed of trust on the property, to forgive the remaining $3 million debt on it. That's the amount still owed by the Development Authority.

Commissioners' concerns will be noted in a letter to the City Council, with a possible appearance within a week or two by commission chairman C. Cheyney Cole Jr. to lobby for the preservation of open space at the Oceanfront.

Timothy E. Barrow, who led an advisory commission study of the project, said the city could sod over the tract, landscape it and erect a decorative frame structure along one border for immediate use this summer. It could be a venue for weekly entertainment, food or beverage festivals, picnicking or just plain relaxing in the sun.

In the long run, Barrow said, the city should consider extending a pier in connection with the 31st Street lot. The idea, first raised in the late 1980s, called for the development of a pier containing upscale shops and restaurants.

Cole said he has received ``an overwhelming amount of mail'' and numerous telephone calls from local residents supporting plans to preserve the property as public open space.

The city already has two Oceanfront parks - at 24th and 17th streets - that have become popular sites for entertainment and food and ethnic festivals. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

City Council will have the final say

VIRGINIA BEACH plans to provide 130 parking spaces for beachgoers

this summer. The 31st Street tract is a 150- by 300-foot plot at the

east end of Laskin Road.

RESORT PLANNERS want to convert the lot into a public park for the

long- and short-term. They also want to ask the city to forgive the

remaining $3 million debt on it. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH OCEANFRONT PARK

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