DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290647

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   60 lines

NORFOLK SETS HEARING ON ODU GROWTH PLAN WOULD ENLARGE CAMPUS BY HALF AND ELIMINATE BLIGHTED, VACANT BUILDINGS.

Old Dominion University's ambitious plans to expand across Hampton Boulevard with a high-tech village and a 10,000 seat-convocation center will get an airing Nov. 25.

The City Council voted Tuesday to schedule the hearing to gather public comments. ODU's plan would enlarge the campus by half and, officials say, eliminate blighted and vacant residential and commercial buildings.

The approximately 75 acres targeted for expansion are bordered by Hampton Boulevard to the west, Killam Avenue to the east, 48th Street to the north and 38th Street to the south.

To move forward, the plans must be approved by the City Council.

Because existing businesses and residences would be razed, some business owners that would be displaced have voiced unhappiness. It's unclear how many businesses and residents would be affected.

ODU officials hope to have the $40 million convocation center completed in time for the basketball season in 2000.

The rest of the expansion would occur over the next two decades and include a shopping center anchored by a supermarket, apartments wired to the university's computer network, and offices and laboratory space.

In another planning matter, the City Council delayed voting on a controversial rezoning request to permit a convenience store in the Lamberts Point neighborhood.

A public hearing drew 26 speakers, and sentiment was nearly evenly divided. Some speakers argued that a grocery was needed, especially for the elderly and residents without cars, while others feared the store would attract drug activity and detract from efforts to redevelop the neighborhood with single-family homes.

The city's Planning Commission has recommended denial, contending that changing the existing single-family zoning to corridor commercial would create an isolated business site amid surrounding homes.

Mehri Kahhal and Mohammad Zarandi have proposed using the first floor of an existing two-story building as a convenience store, and using the second story as a family residence. It is located at West 40th Street and Parker Avenue.

The applicants have filed a lawsuit against the city in a dispute over its previous use as a grocery.

City officials ruled in 1996 that the grocery had stopped operating in 1990 and had lost its previous status as a non-conforming use in the neighborhood. However, a Norfolk Circuit Court judge disagreed. The city attorney's office has appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.

Also Tuesday, city officials promised Berkley residents that a stoplight will be placed at the intersection of Berkley Avenue extended and Fauquier, the site where a 16-year bicyclist recently was killed by a fuel tanker truck. Eight people, including the teen-age boy's father and sisters, appealed to the council for a traffic light.

``I dreamed of buying him his first car, but I bought him a coffin,'' George Hodge, the boy's father, said.

Officials said it may take as long as 90 days to order and install the light.

In another matter, the council approved an adult-use special exception permit for a new Caribbean-style restaurant called Mango's at 738 W. 22nd St. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL

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