DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090281

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   69 lines

SOUTH NORFOLK LEADERS LOOK TO BENEFIT FROM TAX

The words ``new taxes'' are usually hard to swallow for business. But South Norfolk's business community and other leaders, eager to see their borough revitalized, like the idea and want to use the extra money to hire someone to work full-time on luring new development to the area.

The South Norfolk Leadership Council - a newly formed coalition comprising business, civic and revitalization organizations - met with city officials Thursday night to push that idea and others included in a recently released independent report.

``All of the groups in this council voted to support some kind of fee,'' said Leo Johns, president of the Greater South Norfolk Business Consortium. ``We feel pretty strongly about it, and we feel pretty strongly that he not answer to the city but to us. We are willing to be taxed for that.''

City Manager John L. Pazour - who attended the meeting along with Assistant City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee, Councilman Dalton S. Edge and Anna D'Antonio, a city management analyst - urged caution.

While Pazour didn't promise that the city would pursue a tax or budget city money instead, he did promise that the city would listen and do something. A work session is planned in the next month with City Council, which would likely have to approve any action.

South Norfolk's leaders said that, while they are thankful for recent attention from the city to some of their problems, they are frustrated with economic development. The city has paved roads, added parks, stepped up community policing efforts and inspected and cited property owners for aesthetic and structural violations, they pointed out. Also, the report guiding South Norfolk leaders came from a group of revitalization experts invited by D'Antonio of the city staff.

The city's Economic Development Department, which has sent representatives to many South Norfolk meetings, is not specifically equipped to deal with the borough's needs, Pazour said. South Norfolk is Chesapeake's only urban area.

Economic Development lists available industrial sites in South Norfolk but no retail sites, and staffers there do not place a priority on the borough. They shift from project to project as they are needed, and their primary job is citywide economic development. Revitalization issues such as condemnation of dilapidated buildings, zoning and cleanup of contaminated old manufacturing sites involve other government agencies.

Despite the lack of coordinated city efforts in South Norfolk, Councilman Edge said he would have trouble supporting a new tax for a revitalization specialist.

``Taxes can act as a disincentive,'' he said. Businesses that learn they have to pay extra money to locate there may go somewhere else, he said. Also, a new tax would contradict other tax abatement programs in place in the borough.

South Norfolk is a state enterprise zone, which affords certain tax breaks to businesses that move there or expand. Other city and state incentives are offered to businesses and owners of turn-of-the-century homes who renovate.

Edge said he prefers that a city staffer have some of his time dedicated to South Norfolk. Pazour added that he or she would have to maintain a ``positive working relationship with the city.''

The tax issue will be discussed at the City Council work session, along with a list of other suggestions from the report, conducted by the Virginia Downtown Development Association, a statewide nonprofit group to promote revitalization of the state's downtowns.

The process to institute a new tax in Chesapeake targeted to a specific use - like mosquito control - may begin with citizens under the new referendum process. But, as Revitalization Commission member Anne Tregembo pointed out, the City Council would have to place the question on the ballot because residents aren't allowed to pursue items involving taxes.

Other cities in Virginia with special tax districts include Hampton, Franklin, Richmond, Roanoke, Galax, Marion, Staunton and Winchester. Suffolk and Culpeper rescinded their tax districts.

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