DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020553

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  108 lines

VISION 2005 CHIEF SET TO TAKE ISSUES BY THE HORNS PORTSMOUTH CITIZEN COMMITTEES AWAIT DECISIONS ON A PILE OF PENDING PROJECTS.

Nobody promised him the job was going to be easy.

But Douglas Smith must have wondered what he had walked into after a series of meetings last week with citizen committees working on Portsmouth's Vision 2005 plan.

Smith was named chief plans and policy officer for the city last month. He replaced Steve Herbert, who became assistant city manager of Suffolk.

It had been a long time between meetings for the citizen volunteers who were openly impatient with the slow pace of projects.

Why aren't the directional signs ready for the opening of the new High Street Landing on July 18? Why hasn't the city made some effort to push for redevelopment of MidCity shopping center? Why is the city starting over on the Scotts Creek project?

Many questions and frustrations were thrown on the table one after the other through four long meetings.

Although the citizens weren't blaming Smith, they did not pull any punches about their feelings and frustrations.

``I think the lesson there is that we've got to have communications,'' Smith said. ``The last meetings were March 13th and 14th, and then Steve left. That's 90 to 100 days between meetings. Too long.''

Vision 2005 is an economic and community development project launched by the city two years ago, with consultant Ray Gindroz of Pittsburgh as the guiding light.

The projects the citizen committees have been working on fit within Gindroz's scheme to rebuild the older sections of the city from the Elizabeth River to Midtown.

As for some of the big questions posed at the recent meetings, Smith is already making some decisions.

The prodding of citizens has ensured that signs will be ready for the High Street Landing opening on July 18, he said.

As a former member of the Industrial Development Authority, he's going along with the idea of yet another study of Scotts Creek, he said, because the last one was done several years ago.

``Midtown is the tough one,'' he said. ``All the proposed projects are so big that it's hard to get a handle on them. Maybe we need to work on some smaller projects, some singles. You can't hit home runs all the time.''

Smith, 35, has worked as a volunteer with the city. But until he took his current job, he was a banker by profession.

``With the bank, you have daily action and weekly results,'' he said. ``With government, you can't move as quick.''

But, as citizens attending last week's meetings let him know, the person in charge of Vision 2005 is in an unusual position within the bureaucracy. They expect him to move.

``I know the folks are sort of frustrated because they don't know what's going on,'' he said.

Although Smith has lived in Portsmouth for much of his life, he has also worked in Wilson, Southern Pines and Raleigh, N.C., and Atlanta for First Union National Bank. One time he quit the bank ``because I wanted to come home.'' Then First Union moved into Hampton Roads, and he rejoined the company as consumer banking manager for the region.

As a banker, Smith was appointed to the Portsmouth Industrial Development Authority about 18 months ago and also served on the Craney Island Study Committee. That gave him a heads-up on much of what is going on in the city.

So when Herbert announced his departure from the city job, Smith applied.

``This job provides everything I wanted,'' he said. ``I can stay home instead of moving where the bank would send me. I have a mentor in City Manager Ron Massie, who is really an impressive manager. And it is a complete career change.''

Furthermore, he says, he loves his hometown and wants ``to have an impact'' on it.

``Vision 2005 is a great rallying point,'' he said. ``It's tangible and realistic.''

But, he added, ``We can't do everything at once.''

The city, he said, has to get more tax-generating businesses to produce money for some of the projects.

``But I have great confidence in tomorrow,'' he said. ``Portsmouth is America, a typical small city.''

That's why the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other federal agencies often favor Portsmouth. The Vision 2005 plan to demolish the Ida Barbour housing park and replace it with new homes with public housing residents getting first refusals is evidence of that.

``If you try something in Portsmouth and it works, chances are it will work elsewhere,'' he said.

Portsmouth, Smith said, ``must try some bold things.''

``The time is right for us,'' he said.

After graduating from Norfolk Academy in 1980, Smith went to the University of Virginia. He said he never expected to be in Portsmouth again for any reason except to visit his parents, Jim and Ann Doug Smith, who live in Olde Towne.

``I ran out of Portsmouth, not looking back,'' he admits. ``I said, `Portsmouth's not for me.' ''

Smith said he came back home looking for community after several years in Atlanta.

``I think I wanted to reconnect with family and to find some way to contribute to Portsmouth,'' he said.

Now, five years after moving back, he's on the front line for his hometown.

``I think the people of Portsmouth are beginning to understand what they want this city to be,'' he said. ``But people are still wary. They aren't confident we're going to do what we say we're going to do.''

But Smith believes.

``I have real confidence in tomorrow,'' he said. ``Whatever happens, the citizens will drive it. And the system of Vision 2005 is working here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot

A month after taking over the task of implementing Vision 2005,

Douglas Smith, Portsmouth's chief plans and policy officer, is

tackling the many issues involved in the city's development

project.

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