DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070136

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  130 lines

BEACH SEEKS GUIDELINES FOR CROSSING GREEN LINE AT ISSUE: HOW TO GAUGE BUILDERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO QUALITY OF LIFE.

Along Indian River Road, a few miles south of the city's courthouse, a new community is rising amid acres of fields, woods and horse farms.

The focal point is an open-air, glass-domed rotunda that eventually will greet visitors and neighbors alike, reflecting its glow upon a man-made lake carved out around it.

Mature, transplanted magnolias and palm trees will dot some of the emerging landscape of 275 homes that form one of the first custom neighborhoods to be built south of the Green Line, the city's imaginary boundary separating its suburban and rural halves.

With its location, and its houses ranging in price from $255,000 to $350,000, Indian River Plantation is far from a typical Beach development.

But will it become the norm south of the Green Line?

Developer Dickie Foster, head of Baymark Construction Corp., is the first to begin constructing a vision of how residential communities should look in this area, which until now has been largely off limits to such growth.

It comes at a crucial time, when the city's planning commissioners and council members are struggling to forge a policy document setting standards that will guide future building south of Princess Anne and Sandbridge roads.

That line was established in 1979 to separate the more urban north from the rural south as a way of stopping sprawl and its drain on taxpayer dollars. The city decreed, at the time, that it would not pay to put services, such as roads, water, sewer and schools, in the southern part of the Beach.

Part of that edict still holds true today.

City planning commissioners went one step further recently by proclaiming their vision for growth south of the line: a place where development pays for itself and adds something to the city's quality of life, most likely through recreational opportunities.

But what does that mean exactly? And what would those developments look like? Indian River Plantation, perhaps?

``God, let's hope so,'' said Planning Commissioner Judy Rosenblatt, one of many city officials who speak highly of Foster's community, and one of several planning commissioners who support gingerly stepping over the Green Line.

``We're going to be looking for uniqueness,'' said Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn. ``As far as I'm concerned, we want Dickie Foster's stuff here; I am pleased with the quality of stuff that Dickie Foster will bring forward, . . . even sight unseen.''

But saying that a development should pay its way by not adding a burden on other taxpayers, and that it should add something to the city, is easier said than done.

Take Foster's development, for example.

City Planning Director Robert J. Scott said Indian River Plantation will probably add more to the city coffers than it will cost to provide its future residents (three households, as of Aug. 25) with services.

But, he said, that's only because Foster, as part of a deal worked out with the subdivision's former developer, is paying a per-lot sum - $1,830 a lot this year. The price goes up 3 percent a year because of inflation.

Indian River Plantation is also contributing with its amenities, which Foster clicks off with pride: the rotunda and a fiber-optic lighted bridge leading to it, landscaping that goes far beyond city code, a gated entrance with a video camera and on-site security guard, a picnic area, tennis courts, a 5-acre recreation area, brick walkways and an English garden.

``I'm still paying (per lot) when I'm exceeding all their goals,'' Foster said recently on a tour of his latest vision.

It's not just on-site amenities that should count, Scott points out. People who live in subdivisions have to go to work. They use the roads, the schools, the recreational areas, the emergency services.

``You can't solve road problems by building parks, you have to solve road problems by building roads,'' Scott said. ``That's not to say we're not very happy to see the parks being built.''

One thing about the whole concept leaves Foster and other builders scratching their heads.

They wonder what model the city should use to determine whether a development pays for itself and adds quality to the city. ``I think all development should pay its way, but tell us what to do,'' Foster said.

Most city officials who talk about it don't really know what that model would be, and say that's up to city staff to figure out.

``It may not be possible to enforce, it may not be possible to measure,'' said Planning Commissioner Jan Eliassen. ``I do think that it is a good concept, and that it helps us focus on the costs and rewards of development. . rewards.''

Eliassen is one fan of the proposed Heron Ridge Estates, also south of the Green Line off Seaboard Road, preferring it to Foster's development.

The 408-acre subdivision will include an 18-hole championship golf course next door to $300,000-plus homes. Eighty percent of the development will be in open space. Foster's development isn't close to that figure.

Planning Director Scott said after the community was approved in June that the real estate taxes generated by the homes would pay for the city services they would require. Less-expensive homes do not produce enough property taxes to meet the city's expenses.

But city officials don't know for sure what price a house must be to pay for itself. The price of $250,000 is often bandied about, which means the house would generate $3,050 in real estate taxes at $1.22 per $100 of assessed property value.

But that price tag, produced for the city nearly a decade ago, is ``outdated,'' said E. Dean Block, the city's budget director.

To say a $250,000 house pays more in real estate taxes than it costs to provide services to its residents should not be the basis of any policy the city might be thinking of adopting, Block said recently.

Some wonder how many $250,000-plus homes the city can handle. Those who keep an eye on real estate say that the need is there and that the market would control the situation.

Developers have more to lose if they start building $250,000-plus houses that don't sell, said Ron Foresta, general manager/vice president of Womble Realty. ``They're not going to do it unless they think there's a market; hence, the city is protected.''

According to real estate figures, most new houses sold in the city are in the $110,000 to $190,000 range.<

The City Council is left in the position of determining whether the Comprehensive Plan, the city's blueprint for development, can adequately and effectively address the issue of developments paying their own way.

It is within this document that city planners have proposed the section that says development south of the Green Line should be at least ``tax neutral,'' which means it should pay for itself.

The plan must be reviewed every five years, and was forwarded to the City Council last month for consideration. The council has said it will hold two public hearings on the document and hopes to adopt it in November.

``The city really needs to have pretty accurate figures on that stuff,'' said Councilwoman Reba S. McClanan. And the city needs to have specific development guidelines for that part of the Beach, she said.

Several planning commissioners say the city is in a better position than ever to approve quality subdivisions in that part of the city on a case-by-case basis.

Planning Commissioner Rosenblatt believes that will happen. ``The quality of development has changed,'' she said. ``The proof is (already) down there.'' ILLUSTRATION: Maps

The Virginian-Pilot

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