DATE: Monday, June 23, 1997                 TAG: 9706230047

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  255 lines

BENDING THE LINE?

Call it a tale of two cities.

To the south - wide-open spaces, rolling farmland and wildlife havens.

To the north - strip malls, countless subdivisions and constant traffic.

In between - a line separating the two, found only on city planners' maps.

Since its inception in 1979, that line - dubbed the Green Line - has become a symbol of the Beach's commitment to controlling growth by regulating where and how much will be allowed in the city's rural southern half, who will profit, and how much taxpayers will end up paying.

Now, nearly two decades after leaders decreed the line along Sandbridge and Princess Anne roads, city officials are being forced to revisit its mission.

A developer's request to transform 58 agricultural acres just south of the Green Line into 98 upscale, single-family homes is scheduled for a vote Tuesday by the City Council. The case brings to bear the larger economic and political challenges that have arisen recently to challenge the Green Line.

The choices remain difficult because the consequences could reach far. Development can be desirable if it brings new economic and quality of life opportunities that benefit all residents. But it can be disastrous if it only places an additional burden on taxpayers citywide.

That leaves city leaders with the challenge of formulating a strategy that promotes one and restricts the other. The Green Line, for 18 years, has been the council's primary tool.

Both the pressures and the stakes, however, have grown in recent years.

Few large-scale residential development opportunities remain north of the line and water should begin flowing through the Lake Gaston pipeline by year's end, lifting water restrictions that have curbed growth since 1992. The city also has begun spending thousands of tax dollars to purchase development rights from farmers.

That means what was once a political tool to halt growth is now backed by a public investment.

``It's a crucial issue to people all over the city,'' said Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley, the city's Pungo representative. ``We won't have the dollars to keep up our old neighborhoods and our old infrastructure (roads, schools, water and sewage lines, parks, libraries) if we keep building new and going into new areas.''

Debate over the Green Line returned to center stage last month when the Planning Commission recommended 8-3 that the City Council approve a development plan below the Green Line, known as Sandy Hill Farm. Although the council is scheduled to review the request Tuesday, the developer plans to ask that the matter be deferred indefinitely while the city finishes reviewing its Comprehensive Plan, a document that guides development. Even if the delay is granted, it already has reignited the larger issue.

Some fear allowing this development would set a dangerous precedent because it's south of the Green Line and follows none of the established rules for exemption.

Those guidelines were established in 1991-92 when the city realized development could not be halted forever below the no-growth boundary. City leaders set up three transition areas south of Princess Anne Road and north of Indian River Road to ease development from the suburban north to the agrarian south.

For development to occur in the three transition zones, development would have to meet certain criteria, such as providing open space areas free of buildings. This would include golf courses, parks and conservation areas.

Sandy Hill Farm lies in a transition area earmarked for low-density houses with recreational amenities attached.

R.J. ``Rip'' McGinnis, the project's developer, says his property is uniquely located along the Green Line and deserves special consideration. He said he doesn't see how the property could be better used because it is sandwiched between one subdivision and across the street from commercial zones.

McGinnis says services already are provided to Three Oaks, a neighborhood of more than 210 houses abutting his proposed development. Three Oaks is one of the largest developments south of the Green Line and was already in the development process when the land surrounding it was rezoned to farmland 11 years ago.

On a recent tour of the area, McGinnis pointed to the area north of Princess Anne Road and said: ``Everything's happy on the left-hand side, everything's unhappy on the right-hand side.''

McGinnis noted that the land was zoned for residential use, for actually the same number of houses per acre as he's proposing, dating back to the 1950s. But, he said, the landowner's property rights were stripped from him in 1986 when the City Council, by a slim margin, voted to ``downzone'' about 3,500 acres from residential to farmland below the Green Line.

Many Three Oaks residents and other city leaders, including three planning commissioners who voted against Sandy Hill Farm last month, disagree with McGinnis. They say approval could lead to unbridled growth in an area earmarked for much less. According to the city's Comprehensive Plan, one house per 5 or 10 acres is allowed in that area. McGinnis' proposal is for 1.7 houses per acre.

``If the City Council approves this rezoning, they will have set a precedent that will make it very difficult to deny any similar development anywhere south of the line,'' said Jan Eliassen, a planning commissioner who has vocally opposed the rezoning.

Eliassen said it's not a question of the proposed subdivision's quality - McGinnis has proposed building homes that would sell for more than $250,000 - it's about breaching the line's integrity. Eliassen said approving it would signal developers that land once considered off-limits to houses built in close proximity is now fair game.

He says the development should accompany some recreational amenity, as with a golf course neighborhood just endorsed by the Planning Commission two weeks ago. That proposal, called Heron Ridge Estates, calls for 108 upscale houses intermingled with a top-quality, 18-hole golf course along Seaboard Road. The city will lease the golf course to the developer.

Planning commissioners praised the private/public project, saying it fits with the Comprehensive Plan by keeping 80 percent of the 408-acre project in open space.

Planners argue that Sandy Hill Farm provides neither.

But McGinnis disagrees. The subdivision would have 8.7 acres in open space and an additional 3.24 acres in open space for rights-of-way for a pedestrian/bike path and trees.

The houses would be on lots larger than a quarter-acre and up to nearly a half-acre and would be in a price range that would pay enough in real estate taxes to cover the costs of the city services they would require, he said. The city's budget director, E. Dean Block, says houses in suburban parts of the city that cost at least $250,000 should generate enough taxes to offset the costs of services.

McGinnis said that the 58-acre parcel abuts a neighborhood of similar density, also south of the Green Line, and 150 acres across the road is being sold as commercial property.

In the 1980s, after the city downzoned about 3,500 acres south of the Green Line from residential - including Sandy Hill Farm - to farmland, several developers sued the city for return of their property rights. They argued that the city had in effect robbed them of their investment because their land wasn't worth as much if a buyer couldn't develop it.

Each of those cases was decided against the city and resulted in several housing developments being built below the line, including Courthouse Estates and Highgate Greens.

The Green Line's concept in 1979 was eloquent in its simplicity, but became garbled after the court cases. Despite the construction, the city has tried to maintain the line's purpose.

Officials don't want a repeat of the 1970s when sprawl went unchecked, and the 1980s when growth in the city's northern half put an additional strain on city services.

Robert J. Scott, the city's planning director, said the boundary saved the city considerable money.

It allowed the city, through taxpayer-approved referendums, to start building the needed roads, schools and sewers to serve new residents. The line kept growth in the south at bay and allowed the city to take care of business in the north.

So the city may not be ready to cut a swath through that line.

By keeping development south of the boundary to a minimum, the Beach has been successful in providing services to the area where most of its people live.

If it hadn't, citizens ``would not have a lot of money they now have because their taxes would have been higher'' to pay for the needed services, said Block, the budget director.

Because of that, many say the line shouldn't be breached.

Others argue it should be modified.

``Calling it the Green Line has outlived its usefulness,'' said Eddie Bourdon, a Beach attorney who argues rezoning matters before the Planning Commission.

Bourdon said the real Green Line is the boundary below the transition areas, where the Agricultural Reserve Program has been thriving.

Under that program, begun last year, the city pays farmers to keep their land in agricultural use, forgoing development. It is not meant to replace the Green Line but to help enforce it.

``With the adoption of the Agricultural Reserve Program we've put meat on the bones in the agribusiness areas by allowing open space to be purchased from willing buyers to protect from sprawling suburban development,'' said Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.

Eliassen calls the program the ``most thoughtful, innovative policy to protect taxpayers'' adopted by a City Council.

It tells citizens their tax dollars won't be going to subsidize development that doesn't pay for itself, Eliassen said, but will go for preserving open space and farmland.

Citizens will have a chance next month to join the debate.

Eliassen and his colleagues on the Planning Commission are overdue in forwarding an updated version of the Comprehensive Plan to the City Council. The document serves as a master blueprint for any future development and designates how every parcel of land in the city should be used - from farms to single-family homes to various commercial uses.

The plan is being revised for the first time since 1994 and will give the council another chance to debate whether the Green Line should be maintained or moved.

Tuesday, planners are expected to announce the dates of several public hearings to be held in July. They hope to forward the plan and citizen comments to the council in August. MEMO: 18 years of Green Line history show resolve for careful growth

KEY DATES:

1979: The City Council establishes the Green Line.

1986: A divided City Council downzones about 3,500 acres in the

city's southern half, south of the Green Line, restricting it to

agricultural use only. Six people on the current council voted on that

issue. For downzoning were Meyera E. Oberndorf, Barbara M. Henley and

Nancy K. Parker. Those against downzoning were Reba S. McClanan, John A.

Baum and Harold Heischober.

1988: Circuit Court judge rules against city in its downzoning of

about 1,700 acres near Sandbridge.

1989: Circuit Court strikes down City Council's 1986 downzoning of

404-acre Courthouse Estates subdivision off North Landing Road.

1991-92: City Council establishes three transition areas south of

Green Line to Indian River Road where limited development can occur if

it meets strict requirements.

1994: The city buys the Lake Ridge property - 1,192 acres - from a

bank after a failed attempt by local developers to turn the property

into a 70 percent commercial, 30 percent residential complex. The site

now houses the GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater; there are plans for a

PGA Tour golf course, a 6,000-seat multipurpose stadium, a relocated

Princess Anne Park and two schools. It is located in Transition Area 1.

1995: The city establishes the Agricultural Reserve Program to pay

farmers not to develop their land.

1996: The Planning Commission embarks on revamping the city's

Comprehensive Plan, which guides development. That review is still under

way.

May 14, 1997: The Planning Commission endorses the rezoning of 58

acres south of the Green Line for 98 upscale, single-family homes in the

proposed Sandy Hill Farm neighborhood.

June 11, 1997: The Planning Commission endorses the rezoning of

agricultural land below the Green Line for 108 single-family homes on

half-acre and three-quarter acre lots as part of a public/private

partnership for a top-quality golf course community called Heron Ridge.

June 24, 1997: The City Council will decide whether to defer or hear

the Sandy Hill Farm proposal.

Guide to key terms for understanding Green Line issues

Agricultural Reserve Program: Established in 1995 by the City Council

to pay farmers not to build on or sell their land to developers. It

helps farmers stay in business and preserve open land. The city buys the

land with long-term bonds, and farmers get annual dividends. The city

wants to preserve 20,000 acres in 25 years in the city's southern half,

south of Indian River and Sandbridge roads.

Blue Line: An imaginary line that makes up the southern boundary of

the three transition areas where the Agricultural Reserve Program is in

full swing.

Comprehensive Plan: A document officially adopted in 1979 guiding

development in all sections of the city. According to state law, the

Planning Commission must review the document every five years.

Green Line: A boundary along Princess Anne and Sandbridge roads

established in 1979, beyond which certain city services such as schools

and water and sewerage would no longer be provided. Done to slow public

cost of residential development in the city's southern half.

Open space: Land underdeveloped or relatively free of buildings and

other structures. Generally included are waterways, ocean and bay

beaches, related shorelines, golf courses, public and private parks,

green areas, conservation areas and wildlife refuges.

Transition area: An area characterized by gradual and orderly change

in land use. In Virginia Beach, such areas are intended to eliminate

sprawl below the Green Line.

STUDENTS PETITION TO PRESERVE BEACH LOT/B1 ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Developer R.J. ``Rip'' McGinnis unleashed debate over Virginia

Beach's development policies when he asked to build 98 homes in the

field behind him. The property is right along the Green Line.

A DISPUTE OVER LAND USE IN VIRGINIA BEACH

ROBERT VOROS/The Virginian-Pilot

GRAPHIC

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.] KEYWORDS: CONTROLLED GROWTH GREEN LINE DEVELOPMENT LAND USE

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