
DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260523

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN MURPHY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   68 lines

COUNCIL PROPOSES VOTING DISTRICT NAMES CENTERVILLE AND ROSE HALL LINKED TO AREA'S HISTORY.

Rose Hall was a 19th century Lynnhaven River plantation. In the 1950s, the name was adopted by an exclusive Kempsville dress shop.

Centerville was a farming community that appeared on old U.S. soil survey maps. Today, a Beach turnpike bears the same name.

Both monikers were called to duty again on Tuesday when the City Council unveiled proposed names for the seven new voting districts that will be used for the first time in May for the City Council and School Board elections.

The districts will replace the seven boroughs that have divided Virginia Beach voters since the city was created in 1963.

Five of the names chosen will be familiar to Beach residents: Kempsville, Bayside, Lynnhaven, Beach and Princess Anne, all borrowed from the current boroughs.

But Rose Hall and Centerville - two districts carved out of the existing Kempsville borough - will be new to all but the most senior Beach natives.

``For a pretty young city, it was good to find something in history,'' said Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn, who sat on a committee with Vice Mayor William D. Sessoms to help pick the names.

The names will be used instead of simply referring to the districts by numbers one through seven, an idea that all council members found distasteful.

``It just doesn't seem like a community when you use numbers,'' Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said.

The district names are not final. Sessoms, who cautiously proposed the new names on Tuesday, said he expects to hear quickly if residents don't like them.

``Frankly, if you all don't like them, we can go back and work on them some more,'' he said.

The public will be invited to voice opinions of the new districts before they are adopted next month.

Rose Hall beat out some other contenders, including Bow Creek and Plaza. Centerville also had some competition: Indian River, Stumpy Lake and Tallwood.

In reaching their decisions, committee members looked for names that were exclusive to the area or names that had historical significance.

Two boroughs will disappear from voting maps. Pungo and Blackwater were both absorbed as part of the new Princess Anne voting district.

The new districts were drawn up last year after voters decided in a referendum that they wanted to keep electing all council and School Board members at-large. The seven district representatives on each body must live in the district they serve, but they receive votes citywide.

The General Assembly required the council to hold the referendum and to equalize the population of the seven voting boroughs, which range in population from under 1,000 in Blackwater to nearly 150,000 in Kempsville.

The new system is being challenged in court by Carolyn Lincoln, a Bellamy Woods resident who runs a women's advocacy group called Baby Steps.

In a suit filed in August in federal court in Norfolk, she claims the new election system unfairly dilutes minority voting rights.

City attorneys said they hope to resolve the case before the spring election. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

JOHN EARLE/The Virginian-Pilot

DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE NEW BEACH PRECINCTS

SOURCE: City of Virginia Beach

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

Map

The Virginian-Pilot

PROPOSED NAMES FOR VIRGINIA BEACH'S VOTING DISTRICTS