DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130495

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   52 lines

BEACH HOLDS OUT FOR OFFICES AT INTERSECTION CITY RESIDENTS WANT NEW STRUCTURES ALONG THE GENERAL BOOTH CORRIDOR TO BLEND IN.

The city is sticking to its plan.

That's the message the Planning Commission delivered Wednesday in turning down a developer's request to build 64 condominiums at the corner of General Booth Boulevard and Ferrell Parkway.

The city said the six-acre site would be best used for offices.

That's what the city's Comprehensive Plan says, too. The plan is a blueprint meant to guide future development.

``I look for the reasons to change it, not for the reasons not to change it,'' Robert Vakos, the Planning Commission's chairman, said about the plan. ``I didn't hear that today.''

The condominiums, proposed by Pace Construction and Development Corp., would have been in the city's Courthouse/Sandbridge section. Residents there are known to be outspoken about development.

They have been successful in getting developers to change the looks of their designs, such as the 7-Eleven at the corner of Princess Anne Road and General Booth, and the General Booth McDonald's.

They've also worked with the city to develop design guidelines for the General Booth corridor to ensure that new structures blend in.

The motif along General Booth centers on two of the Beach's more historical structures that survive nearby: The Hickman House, built circa 1832, and Nimmo United Methodist Church, built in 1792.

Barbara Ferguson, who represents the General Booth area on the commission, said the General Booth and Ferrell Parkway corner is vital because it's located at a future major intersection. Ferrell Parkway, which now dead-ends at the Princess Anne Recreation Center, is scheduled to hook up with the city Municipal Center at Princess Anne Road sometime in 2003.

The City Council adopted the newest version of the Comprehensive Plan this month. Guidelines for the General Booth corridor were carried over from the old plan.

James E. Morris of Pace Construction noted that the plan is a guideline and is not legally binding.

Morris called the plan contradictory because the city wants to maintain its agrarian character in its southern area by promoting development to the north, he said.

Morris said he wants to know what the city really wants.

Gerald A. Porterfield, working for Pace on the project's design, pointed out that the land had been rezoned for office use since 1989 and that nothing has been built there.

It's time for the city to take a new approach at that corner and allow the construction of the condominiums, Porterfield said.

``We really want to keep this area for offices,'' Ferguson said.

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