DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997             TAG: 9703260521

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   56 lines

SETON HOUSE DISPUTE DRAWS LARGE CROWD TO BEACH MEETING

Opponents and supporters of a proposed crisis center for troubled youths turned out in full force Tuesday and waited late into the night for the City Council to take up the matter.

The crowd of about 150 people who attended the public hearing appeared evenly divided. Most wore either a red piece of construction paper marked ``NO,'' or a yellow sticker proclaiming ``I support Seton House.''

The council had not voted on the issue as of 12:30 a.m. today.

The council was being asked to approve the expansion of Seton House, the 12-year-old sanctuary for runaways and other troubled girls, to include boys.

Seton House serves an average of eight girls at St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church on Little Neck Road. Last fall, Seton House officials proposed building another facility to house a similar number of boys at nearby St. Aidan's Episcopal Church on Edinburgh Drive.

But after opposition erupted from the neighboring Kings Grant community, officials decided to move the girls to the St. Aidan's site and house the boys at St. Nicholas.

Negotiations between Seton House officials and Kings Grant residents have been unsuccessful, even though Seton House has agreed to 13 concessions in addition to switching the boys' and girls' shelters.

While waiting for their issue to arise during a marathon council meeting, people lingered in the halls outside the council chambers. The first handful of the more than 30 people who signed up to speak on the issue began their pitches at about 10:30 p.m.

Don Rimer, a member of Seton House's board of directors, said he wasn't surprised by the turnout. ``I've been in this battle from the beginning,'' he said. ``I knew what we were facing.''

Rimer said he came to tell the council that Virginia Beach, with more than 2,500 runaways a year, needs a shelter for adolescent boys.

Sandy Harrelson, an Edinburgh Drive resident and St. Aidan's church member, said she doesn't oppose the shelter's goals, but said the residential neighborhood is not the place for the facility.

``Frankly I'm appalled they would choose to continue, knowing the enormous opposition,'' she said. She added that the church already has a parking problem on Sundays.

Opponents had claimed Monday that Seton House planned to misuse U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money for the project.

They said the money was not being used for homeless people, as it should be.

But Bill Burnham, a HUD spokesman in Richmond, said Tuesday that the residents' allegations were taken out of context. There are ``many inaccuracies'' in the allegations, he said.

The HUD grant to Seton House would be about $133,000, about a quarter of the estimated $477,000 building cost. Kathy Jeffries, Seton House Director, said officials have already raised more than $80,000 to pay for building the shelter. ILLUSTRATION: Map

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