DATE: Wednesday, March 19, 1997             TAG: 9703180266

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: By Karen Weintraub

                                            LENGTH:   35 lines

UPDATE BURTON STATION

Virginia Beach has spent millions to turn a neighborhood near Norfolk International Airport into an industrial park. Unable to buy some properties, the council sought a redevelopment authority that would have permitted them to condemn and take the homes. Voters defeated that effort in November, leaving the fate of the neighborhood in question.

More than a year ago, the Virginia Beach City Council put its plans for the Burton Station neighborhood on hold. Recently, the council repeated its interest in turning the community into an industrial park and asked the city staff to keep searching for ways to make it happen.

Property owners in the neighborhood, bounded by Norfolk International Airport and Northampton Boulevard, have resisted the change, saying the city has not offered them enough money for their ancestral land.

Virginia Beach voters in November rejected the council's attempt to create a redevelopment and housing authority that would have the power to condemn land in Burton Station and elsewhere. Without that authority, the city seems to be at the mercy of property owners, some of whom are willing to sell but have been having trouble clearing the title to their land.

The council at a recent retreat said it would like to get Norfolk or the airport authority to use their condemnation powers to buy the land, but Norfolk and airport officials said they do not have that power.

The Beach has already spent about $2 million to buy property in Burton Station, an investment that will be lost if the city cannot find a way to purchase the remainder of the neighborhood. The council has said it will not spend any more money on Burton Station unless it can complete the area's transformation to an industrial park.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu