Norfolk to review glut of neighborhood plans

NORFOLK

The city has 81 active neighborhood improvement plans, the oldest dating from 1957, but many of the plans overlap each other and have conflicting goals.

Some have not been revised in decades.

City Manager Regina V.K. Williams said it is unrealistic to fund all of the plans, which generally call for the city to tear down blighted housing, rebuild infrastructure and, in some cases, create new shopping and business hubs.

She said it's time for the City Council to either eliminate or reaffirm its commitment to the plans.

"Our residents are beginning to express dissatisfaction," she said. "When plans are established, our residents have expectations that they will be implemented."

The council agreed and will begin culling plans in January at two special, three-hour morning meetings.

What seems certain is that major neighborhood initiatives in Wards Corner, Broad Creek, Southside and Fairmount Park will survive.

City Planning Director Frank Duke said the fate of 19 plans must be decided by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority's board of commissioners. That leaves 62 in the hands of the City Council.

It was Frank who discovered the large number of plans while updating the city's general plan.

Most plans are concentrated downtown, in low-income neighborhoods in the southern and central part of the city and Ocean View.

In addition to the Southside plan, there are five others for Berkley, Campostella and Campostella Heights.

Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot said one plan calls for shipyards and other industry along the waterfront to be redeveloped into park space in Berkley, a goal he calls unrealistic.

"We don't have the dollars to do that, even if we wanted to," he said.

Edgewater, a portion of Larchmont, one of the city's more affluent neighborhoods, has a plan, as does Ghent.

At least four are in various stages of development and have not yet been adopted by the City Council - a remake of the downtown plan, the St. Paul's quadrant, Five Points-Fairmount Park commercial market study and the Central Hampton Boulevard plan.

Council members say deciding which plans to cut could be testy. Seven of the eight council members - Mayor Paul Fraim is the only exception - represent wards, and council members are often protective of their turf.

"There's going to be a lot of give and take," Councilman W. Randy Wright said.

Councilman Barclay C. Winn agreed, saying he expects some "frank discussion."

That already occurred when the council discussed the issue on Tuesday. Councilwoman Daun S. Hester asked to add a funding plan for Park Place, Lamberts Point, Kensington and Villa Heights neighborhoods before beginning the process of eliminating the other plans.

She received support from Councilwoman Theresa Whibley and criticism from most other council members.

Hester told Fraim that he agreed last spring to include funding for the plan in the budget. Fraim said he didn't recall that conversation, "but if you do, then I must have said it."

Hester said she was chagrined to learn the money was not in the budget and asked that it be funded now.

A majority of council told her she will have to wait until the existing list is trimmed.

"The city manager is telling us that things are out of control now," Winn said. "We should pare this down to a reasonable number before we take on anything else."

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com