DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260530

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   84 lines

RESIDENTS CHEER, JEER ODU EXPANSION PROPOSAL

An overflowing, standing-room-only crowd showed up Tuesday night at the City Council's chambers to talk about a plan to redevelop a 10-block corridor along the east side of Hampton Boulevard to accompany the planned expansion of Old Dominion University.

The proposal was viewed both as a major boost for the city's growth and vitality and as a needless upsetting of the livelihoods of businesses and residents standing in the path of the redevelopment.

Nearly 100 people signed up to speak at a joint public hearing held by the council, the city Planning Commission and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

Each body will review and vote on the plans. Under a schedule outlined by the redevelopment and housing authority, which would oversee the project, the council could vote on the plan in late December or early January.

Among those supporting ODU's expansion and the proposal to create a surrounding university village were representatives of the Norfolk division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce; the Greater Norfolk Corp. business group; several civic league presidents in adjacent neighborhoods, and various ODU faculty, staff and students.

Robert Stanton of Virginia Beach, a former ODU student who chairs the university's real estate foundation, said the redevelopment of the 65-acre corridor would have a ``tremendously positive impact on our community.''

Said Tommy Johnson, president of the Greater Norfolk Corp: ``It's crucial to the city's economic future to accommodate this expansion.''

``This will do nothing but help the surrounding neighborhoods and the region,'' said Steve Ballard, president of S.B. Ballard, a business located just east of the proposed redevelopment boundaries.

But plenty of speakers were not convinced of the plan's soundness, though most said they supported the expansion of ODU in principle.

Several business owners and their attorneys urged the city not to rush the plans and to allow them to become involved in the redevelopment of the area. About 60 business owners would be uprooted by the redevelopment and ODU's plans to construct a 10,000-seat convocation center and two parking garages.

Under the plan, many businesses would be replaced by a shopping center anchored by a supermarket, townhouses and garden apartments, and private office and laboratory facilities meant to spur new technology development and bolster ODU's reputation as a world-class research institution.

``I think that business owners and property owners who've been successful ought to be involved in developing their own property instead of someone from the outside being brought in,'' said William T. Gray, who would lose his pharmacy and apartment buildings that house ODU students.

Del. Robert F. McDonnell, of Virginia Beach, representing the Old Dominion Merchants and Business Association, asked whether it was a ``legitimate public purpose for the hammer to come down'' on existing businesses when they would be replaced by similar ``preferred businesses.'' Most of the businesses affected by the proposal belong to the association.

Other business operators noted that the original redevelopment plans called for the shopping center to be developed first, providing a place for displaced businesses to locate. Now, the plan calls for the convocation center to be constructed first, which would wipe out about 14 to 17 businesses.

``Before you tear down an old bridge, you build a new bridge,'' said Joseph Rose, a Norfolk resident who compared the current situation to promises made to black business owners during Church Street's early redevelopment. The Church Street businesses were not treated fairly, he said, calling the city's track record on redevelopment ``so poor.''

As proposed, the so-called Hampton Boulevard redevelopment project is bordered on the west by the boulevard, to the north by 48th Street, to the east by Killam Avenue and to the south by 38th Street.

The redevelopment and housing authority would be empowered to buy and clear property for a new university ``village.'' The housing authority, which would also have the power to take property through condemnation, has determined that the area is blighted and contains an incompatible mix of clashing uses that include industrial sites next door to apartment buildings.

Without government intervention, officials say, the area would continue to deteriorate.

Under the plan, city taxpayers would pay for about $15 million in improvements, including construction of a new ``Main Street'' parallel to Hampton Boulevard. Private developers would build and finance the shopping center and other uses unrelated to ODU's expansion.

ODU will cover construction of the $40 million, 10,000-seat convocation center and two parking garages, officials said. The General Assembly authorized the project, enabling ODU to use university-related fees, mostly from students.

No state tax dollars would be used to build the center or garages or to buy the land needed for the expansion, said David F. Harnage, ODU's vice president of administration and finance.

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