DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130511

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   63 lines

ODU CREATES FUND TO HELP DISPLACED BUSINESSES

In a gesture that could both mend fences and ease the impact of a proposed expansion eastward across Hampton Boulevard, Old Dominion University officials on Wednesday announced a $500,000 fund to help businesses that will be displaced.

The announcement came at a meeting attended by about 250 people, including business owners upset at the prospect of losing their livelihoods and Lamberts Point residents fearful that the merchants' outcry might redirect ODU into their neighborhood.

What was clear is that ODU's 75-acre expansion plan, coupled with a city proposal to redevelop a swath of property between 48th and 38th streets, won't happen without growing pains.

The relocation fund, said David Harnage, ODU's vice president for administration and finance, is an effort to smooth things over.

``It is a gesture on the part of the university to be a good partner and to make this as least disruptive as possible,'' Harnage said after the 90-minute meeting in the gym of Madison School off 38th Street.

Harnage said that only ODU foundation money - and not state dollars - will finance the fund.

A leader of the Old Dominion Merchants and Business Association, a group that represents many of the estimated 64 businesses that would be uprooted, viewed the offer as a ``positive.''

``It's the first step to bridging the gap and opening the communication between the merchants and the university,'' said Jay Sherrill, president of the business group.

The City Council, which will hold a public hearing on the matter Nov. 25, must first approve the plans, which include designating the area as a redevelopment project. That move would allow the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority to buy and demolish property, including by condemnation.

ODU's expansion would occur over 10 to 15 years, but officials hope to complete the first phase - a $40 million, 10,000-seat convocation center and two parking garages - by the fall of 2000. They also envision a village development with a shopping center, apartments wired to the university's computer network, offices and laboratory space.

David Rice, executive director of the housing and redevelopment authority, said much of the area is blighted and needs the agency's involvement to improve it. ``It won't happen any other way,'' Rice said, responding to one angry man who shouted, ``We don't need y'all to do it.''

Rice added: ``ODU is an extremely important institution to this city, and it needs to expand.''

Some merchants questioned why the university would cross Hampton Boulevard, where they'd pay millions to acquire business property, including such corporate flagships as McDonald's, Burger King and Southland Corp. ``There's business owners and property owners and residents and jobs, all who are going to be hurt,'' Jeff Sniffen, owner of Old Dominion Coffee House, said. Sniffen, who rents, said he stands to lose $100,000 he's invested to remodel the store.

About 900 residents, many of them ODU students, would also be uprooted. Some merchants argued that there's be less expense and disruption if ODU expanded into Lamberts Point instead.

But residents there, a predominantly black community that has been disrupted by development in the past, objected strongly. ``We are going to stick together and fight,'' Ellen Harvey, president of the neighborhood civic league, said. Rice said the city had no plans to allow ODU to expand into Lamberts Point.

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