
DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110714

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, JOHN MURPHY and ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITERS

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  138 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * CLARIFICATION Plaza Elementary School in Virginia Beach is not slated for renovation; however, the school is getting an addition. The school was among those listed with a story Thursday about an environmental assessment of Oceana Naval Air Station. Correction published Friday, September 12, 1997. * NAVY: SEND OCEANA ALL 180 JETS: BEACH IMPACT

A Navy report released Wednesday shows that the city may have spent $12 million unnecessarily moving one elementary school and might need to move two others out of potential jet crash zones, city officials said.

In a draft environmental study released Wednesday, the Navy concludes that the Linkhorn Park Elementary School, which is being relocated, would not be in the flight path of jets landing at Oceana Naval Air Station as had earlier been thought, the city acknowledged.

But if as many as 11 squadrons of F/A-18s are added to the base, as the study recommends, two other elementary schools would fall within Oceana's ``Accident Potential Zones'' which could require expensive relocation.

And the study would add nearly 39,000 people and 22 schools to high-noise zones around Oceana and the Navy's nearby Fentress Airfield, in part to accommodate the additional 180 planes. That could force expensive renovations and affect property values in the city.

Beach officials downplayed those impacts Wednesday, saying they were just the necessary cost of luring 5,000 new jobs to Oceana and keeping the base vital to the Navy's future.

Complaining, they said, would only give ammunition to supporters of North and South Carolina bases that are also vying for the new planes.

``You know, this reminds me of getting your home ready for another member of the family to move in,'' Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said at a briefing late Wednesday. ``You think you got everything prepared: you made the beds, you cooked the meals, you polished the furniture, and they arrive with an extra person or someone you didn't expect, so you have to rearrange everything in the house and make some accommodations.''

Oberndorf said she doesn't regret the decision to move both Linkhorn Park and nearby Seatack elementary schools. City officials briefed on the Navy report said neither school building lies in a crash zone, although the Seatack playground remains in a restricted area.

``At the time, based on the information the Navy gave us, we made the determination to move them to show good faith to the Navy that we were not only anxious to keep Oceana, but to grow it,'' Oberndorf said. ``I'm not a seer or a psychic and I had no way of knowing that the new zones would be drawn in a new place.''

Work on Linkhorn is about half complete, school officials said Wednesday. The city has bought land for the new Seatack Elementary but has not started construction.

City officials said the Navy study included two other schools, Brookwood and Plaza Elementary, in ``Accident Potential Zones'' - areas where off-base crashes are most likely. Brookwood, built in 1968, is among the 24 schools slated for renovations over the next few years; 36-year-old Plaza, which sits alongside Brookwood near Lynnhaven Mall, is not.

School Board Chairman Robert F. Hagans said in a prepared statement Wednesday that the district has been assessing its options since it learned about the report's conclusions.

``I am pleased to report that staff has developed several highly plausible alternatives regarding use of the old Linkhorn Park and Seatack sites, which will certainly be shared publicly when they are more fine-tuned,'' Hagans wrote. ``Additionally, since two other schools are now identified as possibly being in the new (potential crash zone) and several others are located in high noise areas, costly noise remediation efforts will need to be undertaken.

``The full financial impact is not yet determined, but it will be an issue that the city and the schools will need to work on collaboratively. The safety of our children will remain the guiding principle.''

Robert R. Matthias, assistant to the Virginia Beach city manager, said Wednesday that he hoped the Navy might agree to minor changes in its flight paths so Plaza and Brookwood will not have to be moved. ``The two schools are in the zone by basically the width of a line on a map. . . . It's a very close call,'' he said. ``Perhaps some minor changes to the operation procedures at Oceana could get those two schools out of the (zone).''

The expansion of noise and potential crash zones could also create problems for home- and landowners in both Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, officials said Wednesday. None of the local officials had seen a map of the new zones or had a chance to read the 700-page environmental review, so they could not be specific Wednesday about those impacts.

An executive summary of the study says that more than 22,000 acres - home to 38,983 people - will be added to areas that the Navy expects to be subject to more than 65 decibels of jet noise. About 30,000 Beach homes are already located in such noise zones.

The new areas are to the southeast of Oceana and also in the vicinity of Fentress Airfield in Chesapeake, Matthias said.

Lynnhaven Mall would fall into the expanded crash zone, he said, although he said he did not expect the new squadrons to affect any future expansion of the mall.

According to a 1995 Virginia Beach ordinance, owners of homes in noise zones must warn buyers of the jet paths. New construction in those zones must be built to higher - and costlier - standards, with thicker windows and doors and heavier wood beams. Matthias estimated that new construction costs about 8 percent more in noise zones.

Virginia Beach Real Estate Assessor Jerald D. Banagan said his office has never been able to find a difference in home values inside or out of noise zones. ``We've never really been able to show a measurable difference in property value, or if so, there were so many other aspects that affect property value, you couldn't isolate it,'' he said.

The only thing that could hurt property values, Banagan said, is if the Veterans Administration and Federal Housing Administration refuse to lend money in noise zones. Banagan said he was ``unclear'' on whether those loans would be issued.

``If VA and FHA loans are allowed under the noise zone, I don't see a measurable effect (on housing values),'' he said. ``If loans are not allowed, I think it will have an effect because so many of our homes have government loans.''

Chesapeake City Planner Brent R. Nielson said Wednesday that he's not sure how the report will affect his city.

Naval officials contacted Chesapeake six months ago, Nielson said, and informed them to expect increased air traffic and therefore a change in noise zones around Fentress. As of Wednesday, city officials had not been contacted again and had not seen the report.

``We haven't heard a lot,'' said Nielson. ``It remains to be seen how much increased traffic there will be and its effect on surrounding homes.''

Oberndorf and others said they were confident that the benefits of moving the jets to Oceana outweigh the drawbacks.

Asked if the report would be fuel for North Carolina to oppose the Oceana expansion, Oberndorf said: ``I never underestimate North Carolina. . . . I have the feeling they'll try to find anything and pick at it.''

MEMO: Staff writer michael Clark also contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: VP GRAPHIC

SCHOOLS THAT WOULD BE AFFECTED

[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]

GARY C. KNAPP

Meyera E. Oberndorf, Virginia Beach mayor, said Wednesday that she

doesn't regret the decision to move Linkhorn Park and Seatack

elementary schools. The decision was the best possible at the time,

she said.