The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Roland Park neighbors plan to kick off a petition drive tonight to protest the construction of a $28 million apartment complex. The City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday night to approve the project after a full-house public hearing.
The project, dubbed Promenade Pointe, will bring 187 luxury apartments to the waterfront near Norview Avenue and Tidewater Drive, currently the site of a vacant nursing home. The conflict echoes similar clashes in Highland Park last summer and Bay Oaks in 2007. Both cases resulted in the City Council reversing the rezoning it had approved.
Community members packed into every seat of the hot room during the hearing, leaving dozens of people standing against the walls. Thirty-eight speakers talked for almost two hours, with slightly more than half the speakers in favor of the project. Supporters wore yellow "Vote Yes!" stickers.
Teachers spoke in favor of the educational benefits that the project's wetlands classroom would offer students, while neighbors expressed fears about traffic and safety issues that high-density apartments could bring.
The petition drive begins at 7 p.m. in the meeting room at 6411 Tidewater Drive. The Roland Park Civic League has 30 days to collect 6,627 signatures - 25 percent of votes cast in the last mayoral election - to challenge the decision. If a judge rules the signatures valid, the council is given an opportunity to reverse its decision. If it doesn't, a judge will likely call for a referendum.
Mayor Paul Fraim said he'd been trying to think of what good reason he'd have to vote against the project, "And I just can't find it."
Council members Daun S. Hester and Theresa Whibley voted against the project.
"To rush into something just because it feels good economically, I don't think is our answer," Whibley said. "And although it may give us an economic boom now, if we reduce the quality of life in our city, it does not bode well for us as a city economically later on."
Councilman Barclay C. Winn voted in favor of the project and said that if the city passed up this opportunity, another developer could come in and turn its back on the community. City officials said about 80 percent of the property is already zoned for apartments.
"I don't think some of the residents of Roland Park understand that if we do nothing, somebody could come in and put 125 low-end apartments and build them as cheaply as they can to make it work, and there's nothing we could do about it," he said. "We have a four-star developer trying to build a very nice project. Something is going to go there. This gives us some control over what goes there. "
Shayna Meliker, (757) 446-2326, shayna.meliker@pilotonline.com
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Where were the Fire Marshal's
To limit the attendance to the seating in council chambers
2 things to note
First, the article never pointed out that the developer Bonaventure gave $1,000 to Councilman Wright and Councilman Burfoot each in the last election cycle. Conflict of interest Councilmen! Go to vpap.org and search donors for Bonaventure.
Also, no one has questioned why this vote came up now and not after the new council takes their seat. From what I hear, Councilmen-Elect Smigiel and Protogyrou would have voted against this development.
Protogyrou
Councilman elect Andy Protogyrou would have voted for the project. I don't know where you get your information. This project will create 218 new construction jobs. There will be a $10,000,000 payroll paid over 14-18 months. The project will create $270,000 in new real estate tax revenue in its first year plus approximately $85,000 in permitting fees.
Good Grief,
Don't we have enough half empty lux-living apartment buildings
around here? Build a dog park or a school or a marina or fishing pier -something for the public use. Or even better just tear down the building and leave the land alone for the time being until we actually need more places for people to live.
More reasons to kill the plan
Also, 76% of the nursing home property is in a moderate to high risk flood zone. Currently it's mostly open space, and about a third of the area to be built on is wood. And it's almost entire in the supposed Chesapeake Bay Protection Act "wetlands buffer" which is apparently only enforced for individual homeowners and not rich developers.
What the city should be doing is buying the property, raze the old nursing home, and making it a park for the neighborhood.
It would be really nice if
It would be really nice if the Preview Comment feature on this forum worked correctly. I'll head off the grammar police here:
76% of the nursing home property is in a moderate to high risk flood zone. Currently it's mostly open space, and about a third of the area to be built on is wooded. And it's almost entirely in the supposed Chesapeake Bay Protection Act "wetlands buffer", which is apparently selectively enforced to make it unbuildable for individual homeowners but not rich developers.
What the city should be doing is buying the property, razing the old nursing home, and making it a park for the neighborhood.
Nice Flip-Flops, Mr. Fraim
The January Pilot on the article says the mayor "suggested that reducing the number of apartments and increasing open space might make the proposal acceptable." But now the mayor "just can't find" a reason to vote against it.
It's still a 187-unit project on a 5-acre lot, and except this token gesture of a "wetlands classroom", nothing has changed except the mayor doesn't have to worry about re-election for a few more years.
Allowing the developer to ignore the minimum parking space and open space requirments will most certainly have a negative impact on the adjacent neighborhood by increasing the number of appartment residents and visitors parking on the street.
To prevent more of this shameless pandering to developers in the future, I encourage anyone who signs the petition to also submit a letter of interest to fill the pending Council vacancy for Superward 7. See http://www.norfolk.gov/News/Press/prdetails.asp?PressID=1810
The only good news is that since turnout was so pitiful in the last city election, it should be pretty easy to get the required number of signatures.
The Roland Park Civic League has lost its mind
So, a developer comes along who wants to build 187 luxury apartments on a site ALREADY zoned for 125 apartments. All they're asking for is a zoning change so they can make the numbers work for a higher end product. What is the problem?! There's already a high rise residential building at the corner of Norview and Tidewater. If this proposed project is out of character with the neighborhood, it's only because it will be nicer than the existing surrounding neighborhood. Seriously, anyone against this project needs to take a drive down Tidewater Dr. or Norview Ave. and take an honest look about the way things are trending in the area.
Oh, and "traffic and safety issues"? Hasn't Norfolk shrunk by several tens of thousands of residents since the 1960's? Tidewater and Norview were handling the traffic volumes back then. And how would the safety of the area be affected by having 187 high-end apartments versus 125 apartments of potentially dubious quality? Stop being reflexively against change, people!
You presume quite a lot that
You presume quite a lot that these will be high end construction. Where, praytell, except in custom building, is there quality construction anymore? Probably will use offcast Chinese drywall to make it a more profitable enterprise. Then, rents will soar to pay for the cleanup and replacement. Nothing developers do is beyond question. Roland Park is right to object!
Tidewater and Norview
I don't think this area was any more densely populated in the '60s. Much of the population loss was from giving South Norfolk over to Chesapeake and the rest was from downtown losses. While downtown has certainly improved over the last 10 years, it still is not anywhere close to where it was in the '60s.