Business leaders say no to light-rail referendum

VIRGINIA BEACH

Top business leaders have come out against the city holding a referendum on a light-rail project, arguing it's a decision the City Council should make.

"It's a complex subject, but it's not above your pay grade," Jim Flinchum, board president of the Virginia Beach division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, told the City Council last week. "This is your job."

The comments mark the unofficial start to a debate sure to rage for at least a year while Hampton Roads Transit, the region's transportation agency, carries out its light-rail feasibility study.

In 1999, Beach residents derailed light rail 56 to 44 percent in a referendum. City referendums are nonbinding, but the City Council used it to guide its 1999 decision.

The city is in the final stages of buying a 10.6-mile rail corridor from Norfolk Southern for a possible light-rail project that would connect to Norfolk's system. Next week, the city's development authority will vote on spending $5 million to acquire the vacant Circuit City property near Town Center for a potential station.

City Council members are split into three camps on whether to hold a referendum. Some, such as Jim Wood and Glenn Davis, agree with the business leaders. Others, including Bill DeSteph, Harry Diezel, Bob Dyer, Ron Villanueva and Vice Mayor Louis Jones, say a referendum is needed.

"This is going to require a significant contribution from the taxpayer, and if we expect to get buy-in from the public we should make them part of the process," Dyer said.

Finally, some council members say it's premature to talk about a referendum.

"We can't even think about it until that study is done," Councilman John Uhrin said.

The earliest a referendum probably would happen is November 2010.

A Hampton Roads Transit spokesman said the agency has no opinion on the subject.

A leader of the Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance, which favors a referendum, questioned the motives of the business community.

"They remember the results of 1999," the taxpayer group 's Robert Dean said. "They're afraid. They want to push this thing through."

Besides the Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Beach Business Roundtable and Virginia Beach Vision, groups that represent real estate, development, retail and hospitality interests, also called for the City Council to forgo a referendum and make the decision.

Flinchum said putting the issue to a vote could delay the project, would cost money and would create confusion among the public.

"The community doesn't have access to all the information that the council does," he said. "If they can't make a decision like this, then they should resign," he said of the council members.

Councilwoman Barbara Henley, a light-rail proponent, said she doesn't fear a referendum.

"I'm not sure why they are so much afraid it's going to be an automatic no," she said, adding that times have changed in the past 10 years. "When we had the referendum, there was absolutely no promoting for it. The pro- aspect was totally silent. The anti- was, of course, active. It was almost as if everybody was afraid of it."

Mayor Will Sessoms, who campaigned on holding a referendum, then later said he regretted he'd made that commitment, agreed.

"I'm not afraid of a referendum," he said. "I think the public will favor it."

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com The earliest a referendum probably would happen is November 2010.