DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9710310013

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   50 lines

ODU'S UNIVERSITY VILLAGE FAST FORWARD

The envisioned University Village, along Hampton Boulevard, is vitally important to Old Dominion University and a potential boon to Norfolk and the regional economy.

The village will feature a $40 million, 10,000-seat convocation center, a supermarket-anchored shopping center, offices and dwelling units. Perhaps most important, ODU expects it to lure high-tech firms that customarily cluster near universities to the enrichment of each.

ODU is plugged extensively into the Information Age. The high-tech enterprises apt to settle in University Village will deepen and expand ODU's involvement in mind-bending science and technology.

ODU is practicing world-class physics and oceanography. It is in the forefront of colleges and universities engaged in teaching distant students via the electronic classroom. It operates the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk. It is configured to thrive increasingly in the 21st century.

Information technology contributes megabillions of dollars to the U.S. economy. The United States leads the world in information technology - Silicon Valley, Calif., lures brilliant minds from around the globe. Virginia is turning into Silicon Valley East, and Old Dominion University intends to be a brightening star in the information-technology universe.

Which is to say, the faster the University Village project progresses, the better. It could mean well-paying jobs and an expanded tax base for the region. ODU has been developing the University Village plans for three years. It aspires to break ground for the convocation center early next year, completing it during the latter half of 2000. Norfolk City Hall didn't get on board as swiftly as it might have. Now it's aboard.

That's good news for businesses and property owners in the path of the planned University Village. They've been forced to live with uncertainty. Now Norfolk City Hall, Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Old Dominion University must do all they can reasonably do to speed the project forward while diminishing unhappy consequences for small businesses.

People affected by the project will have a chance to raise questions, air concerns, comment and gain enlightenment in two public briefings during the first half of November and at a public hearing scheduled for Nov. 25 at Norfolk City Council chambers.

The city and university have a duty to treat those in the path of progress fairly, and these hearings are one useful response. But propelling the project forward with all deliberate speed is essential. The University Village should be as high a priority for City Hall as for ODU. This is a big deal - bigger perhaps than some civic and political leaders yet understand.

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