DATE: Wednesday, September 10, 1997         TAG: 9709100554

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   91 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** A story Tuesday about a plan to extend a contract to golf pro Curtis Strange had errors. The story incorrectly reported that Portsmouth operates two courses in Suffolk. Portsmouth owns Sleepy Hole and Suffolk Golf Course; Suffolk operates those courses. The story also reported that a lease agreement with Suffolk expires next year. The lease ends in 1999. Correction published Thursday, September 11, 1997 on page A2 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** COMMUNITY PRESSURE STOPS BID TO REZONE, BUILD STORAGE FACILITIES PORTSMOUTH COUNCIL AND THE DEVELOPERS AGREE TO WITHDRAW THE APPLICATION.

In the 1980s, the West Norfolk Road area community defeated plans for a go-go bar. Later, it successfully opposed an effort to run coal trains through the community.

Tuesday night, developers again bowed to community pressure when an engineer for a storage facility project withdrew his rezoning application to have a strip of land sandwiched between West Norfolk Road and the Western Freeway zoned commercial.

C. Raeford Eure had asked to change the residential land use so builder Kenneth R. Gill could construct several storage facilities on the property. But after meeting with residents, they decided to pull the application indefinitely.

``After much consultation with my client, it would be in the best interest that I indefinitely withdraw my application,'' Eure told the City Council. The council supported Eure's decision and voted unanimously to pull the application.

After the council's vote, the chamber, filled with more than 70 citizens from the communities on West Norfolk Road, Hunters Point and River Pointe, erupted in cheers and applause.

Mayor James W. Holley III quipped: ``You would have thought Michael Jordan had done a slam dunk.''

Then he issued a warning: ``You may have won tonight, but you may lose the next time.''

The mayor said the city is pushing to get economic development and revitalization efforts in depressed areas.

He said he would like to convene a West Norfolk Road Summit by December to discuss opportunities for development with area residents and businesses.

Nancy L. Kelly, the civic league president for Hunters Point, said she welcomes that dialogue.

``We're not opposed to that. We'd love that,'' said Kelly.

Gill declined to comment. Eure left the meeting immediately after the council's vote.

Both men had been meeting with residents for several months.

In a previous interview, Gill had said his storage facilities would provide a service to the nearby subdivisions, especially retirees who live in River Pointe townhouses who need the additional storage for furniture.

Gill had indicated he was willing to work with the residents. He said he would have beefed up security measures and that the facilities would have had a Colonial Williamsburg-type facade, as well as flowers.

He said he had also scaled down the facility to ensure that he could keep a number of the pine trees the residents cherish.

A couple would have been hired to live on site and monitor the security system and grounds, he said.

In other city business, the City Council voted unanimously to pay golf pro Curtis Strange $75,000 to lend his name to Bide-A-Wee Golf course.

That money will come from the city's golf enterprise fund, a pot of money that is generated from revenues earned from Portsmouth's four courses.

The city-owned course, which until 1988 still barred black members, will also be the site of a public golf training program that targets minorities and women.

The City Council also unanimously approved a renegotiation of its lease agreement with Suffolk for one of the courses that Portsmouth owns in that city.

Portsmouth owns two courses in Suffolk - Sleepy Hole and Suffolk Golf Course - and Bide-A-Wee and City Park courses in Portsmouth.

The lease on the Suffolk Golf Course expires in 1999. Portsmouth officials would like to get more money for that course. Suffolk currently leases the course for $5 a year.

Deputy City Manager C.W. Luke McCoy said Tuesday night that he and Suffolk Assistant City Manager Steve Herbert are still negotiating the rent on the course in Suffolk. He predicted that they will reach an agreement later this month.

The new lease would be for 10 years with an option to renew for an additional 10 years. Suffolk would also be responsible for providing up to $1.5 million in capital improvements over the life of the lease. KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL

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