MHI's dry-dock plan adrift; neighbors, city voice concerns

NORFOLK

Marine Hydraulics International Inc. may have to win over City Hall and neighborhood skeptics as it moves to expand operations at its West Ghent shipyard.

Shipyard executives plan to meet with Norfolk and neighborhood leaders in hopes of staving off a change in city zoning rules that could stop the yard from adding a dry dock. The shipyard contends it needs a dry dock, which lifts ships out of the water for repairs, to compete with local yards that have them as it tries to win more Navy work and grow its commercial business.

They hope for a compromise to allow the yard's expansion while buffering the neighborhood from industrial activity, said Chuck McPhillips, a Norfolk lawyer representing Marine Hydraulics, known as MHI.

"MHI needs to be able to continue to improve its business to keep up with the competition, and it can do that and still be a good corporate neighbor," McPhillips said.

The debate reflects an ongoing concern in the city about commercial operations intruding on residential neighborhoods. The city, for instance, has worked with Norfolk International Terminals and adjacent neighborhoods to reduce negative effects from port activity.

MHI's West Ghent shipyard covers roughly 7 acres in an industrially zoned area near the Midtown Tunnel, on the neighborhood's southern edge. It is next to Norfolk Southern Corp.'s Lambert's Point Docks cargo terminal.

Dan Neumann, West Ghent's civic league president, said MHI has addressed past concerns regarding cut-through traffic, on-street parking and other problems that have arisen since the shipyard added a $21 million, 1,200-foot pier in 2004. But residents of the middle- to upper-income neighborhood worry that more growth would be detrimental, he said.

"There's going to be a big pushback from the neighborhood," Neumann said. "We're comfortable with where they are at this point, but any additional expansion or any other additional impact we would be against."

Shipyard officials were surprised late last month to learn that Norfolk's Planning Commission had scheduled a hearing on a proposal to regulate the size of ship-repair structures in the city's "I-5" waterfront industrial zoning district.

The proposed zoning amendment placed a cap on the length of structures extending into the river at repair yards. In MHI's case, adding a dry dock would require a "special exception" permit from the City Council. The council could impose conditions on the shipyard, or reject it as incompatible with the neighborhood.

Under the zoning district's current rules, MHI could add a dry dock by right without City Council approval.

Gary Brandt, MHI's president and chief executive officer, said he found out about the proposal from a newspaper notice advertising the commission meeting.

Before the board met, Frank Duke, the city's planning director, pulled the item off the agenda. The proposal since has been placed on hold, he said, pending meetings with MHI, residents and other shipyards that could be affected.

"We needed more time," he said. Duke said the ordinance change was "not designed to prevent or preclude anything. It's simply trying to ensure we minimize any impact on adjoining neighborhoods."

City Councilman Barclay C. Winn, who lives in West Ghent, said the proposal resulted from council concerns over "the need to protect the quality of life in our neighborhoods."

Winn said the proposed ordinance change "would be a good safeguard," but that more discussion is needed. "We're going to take a hard look at it."

McPhillips said the zoning amendment sent an "anti-business, anti-property-rights message."

With about 450 employees, MHI is one of Norfolk's major employers and taxpayers, he said. "If the city did something with too blunt an object, it could do some real harm, so we've really got to do something that's thoughtful and balanced."

Nearby residents, he acknowledged, also "have natural and legitimate questions and concerns that need to be answered in a positive way."

McPhillips said MHI hopes to develop a proposal to show the city and residents how it would minimize the effects on neighborhoods. The goal, he said, is to avoid a legal fight that could arise if the city adopts zoning changes that threaten the yard's plans for a dry dock.

MHI already has invested more than $400,000 to design a dry dock, Brandt said. It now is shopping for a company to build the dock with hopes of having it installed in 2009.

"MHI wants to work this out in a way that everybody is happy in the end," McPhillips said. "If there's things that MHI can reasonably be expected to do, they'll be happy to do them."

Adding a dry dock, Brandt said, would have little additional impact on the neighborhood because it would not increase the number of ships that could be serviced there.

"Basically, I can put four ships at my pier, and the dock is not going to allow me to put anymore at my pier, no," he said. "I don't agree with the statement that it's going to swamp the neighborhood. We're going to continue to be neighborhood-friendly."

Jon W. Glass, (757) 446-2318, jon.glass@pilotonline.com