DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230529

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  131 lines

A CITY DIVIDED: GROWING PAINS

Jan Eliassen browses through the alumni magazine of his college alma mater at the Pungo Grill - one of his favorite hangouts.

He stops on a page with a black-and-white photo depicting pandemonium on the University of Maryland campus at College Park.

It's spring 1969.

He hesitates.

Then he admits how he took part in the Vietnam War protest that day.

He staged a sit-in with fellow students, blocking traffic on the college's busy main thoroughfare. Reminiscent of Kent State but without the deadly outcome, the National Guard broke up the demonstration with riot gear and tear gas.

``It was the first real revelation I had (about) how powerful ideas can be,'' says Eliassen.

He is reluctant to divulge the incident for fear others may pigeonhole him.

Don't label him a liberal, tag him a tree hugger or anoint him an anti-growth advocate.

But feel free to call him a champion of the Beach's Green Line.

That positions him in the corner of many Beach residents and their views of the controversial boundary set up in 1979 to curtail sprawl and save taxpayers money.

He believes the line should be crossed only when the development provides the city with an excellent recreational benefit and no additional taxpayer burden. No exceptions.

That notion isn't popular with people sitting in the other corner.

What sets Eliassen apart from most people in the debate is his vote as one of the city's 11 planning commissioners.

But even with the vote, Eliassen has found himself in the minority on the advisory panel when it comes to maintaining the Green Line's integrity.

Eliassen was born in Norway in 1946. His father was Norwegian, his mother is Danish. The family came to America in 1953.

From his early days, ideas always have been a part of Eliassen's life.

He grew up on a farm in Pocomoke City, Md., on Maryland's rural Eastern Shore, about 90 minutes from Virginia Beach.

He recalls how the family discussed serious issues and told stories at the dinner table.

``No matter what position I ever took, my father's role was to challenge it,'' Eliassen says.

And, if Eliassen did something not up to his father's liking?

``Punishment was being sent to my room to memorize a poem, and I couldn't eat anything until I had it memorized.

``The length of the poem was an indication of the severity of the punishment.''

He reluctantly accepted a four-year appointment to the Planning Commission in January 1995, at the request of Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley.

``He's got a really good way of looking at a situation and analyzing it,'' Henley said.

``He's very well read on the issues and has a broad perspective. That's the way he does things - it may give others a bit of impatience sometimes but that's just a natural process.''

Eliassen cut his teeth in the community by serving as the president of the Back Bay/Pungo Civic League.

While president in 1991, Eliassen fought a city plan called the Southern Watersheds Management Ordinance, which, he said at the time, favored developers over protecting the water quality of Back Bay and the North Landing and Northwest rivers.

Such publicized fights earned Eliassen a tree-hugger reputation when he joined the Planning Commission.

``My understanding was he was going to be a real outspoken no-growth person,'' recalls Eddie Bourdon, a local attorney who represents clients who want to develop south of the Green Line. ``He's turned out not to be.''

Bourdon says Eliassen listens well.

``He's not antagonistic,'' Bourdon says. ``He's more philosophical; he's looking for utopia but he's not way out in left field - he's not so academic in his approach that he doesn't understand reality.''

Eliassen still has his critics.

Developer R.J. ``Rip'' McGinnis calls him ``a total liberal fantasy-world person.''

Because of where he lives, McGinnis says, Eliassen has a biased viewpoint of seeing things stay the way they are.

``He also tries to paint a broad picture over everything,'' McGinnis says.

``He won't take a case-by-case study.''

Eliassen voted against a proposal McGinnis brought before the commission in May. McGinnis wants to build 98 upscale homes on 58 acres just south of the Green Line, at Princess Anne and Sandbridge roads.

At the time of the Planning Commission's vote, Eliassen called McGinnis' proposal - Sandy Hill Farm - ``the single most important vote that we have cast.'' It was endorsed 8-3.

``With 98 homes, I would expect a golf course, and that it be tax-base positive,'' Eliassen said at the meeting. ``None of that stuff comes with this application. . . . If we break the Green Line and set this precedent, we will extend development as far as it can go, all the way to Sandbridge if we let it.''

Virginia Beach is the most densely populated place Eliassen has lived except St. Louis.

His life and career have been associated with agriculture since the days on his parents' farm.

The Eliassens - Jan, wife Joy and daughter Jessica - moved to the heart of the Beach's farmland 10 years ago. They chose the Beach for its location.

Eliassen's job as a consultant, mainly for clients in Washington and Kansas City, allows him to live anywhere that's close to an airport.

His business, Ad Hoc Associates, does marketing and long-range planning for corporations and public agencies.

``He lives by his wits,'' says Ted Goranson, a scientist and an MIT city planning and architecture graduate who lives in Virginia Beach. ``He sells strategic thinking services, he learns quickly, he sizes up a situation.''

Eliassen is not dogmatic in his views about growth, Goranson says.

Most would agree, though, that he fashions his views on deeply held principles.

When City Council rezones a piece of property for development, Eliassen says, it has extended a contract to every future homeowner in the community.

``The contract says we agree to educate your children, to haul away your trash, to dispose of your sewage, to protect you against crime, to protect you against fire, to provide you with roads so you can get to shopping, libraries and parks and on and on and on,'' he says.

``That is why the taxpayers have the right to dictate what zoning will be and where and when development will take place,'' Eliassen says. ``Anyone can do what they want with their property up to the extent where doing something with your property doesn't cause an increase in the tax burden to other property owners.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

PHILIP HOLMAN

The Virginian-Pilot

Jan Eliassen

VIRGINIA BEACH'S GREEN LINE PLAN

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The Virginian-Pilot KEYWORDS: PROFILE VIRGINIA BEACH PLANNING COMMMISSION

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