Some Virginia Beach residents question Kempsville proposal

VIRGINIA BEACH

Local residents excited about the city’s plan to redevelop the area surrounding the Kempsville, Witchduck and Princess Anne road intersection are a little less eager these days.

The city’s Historic Kempsville Development Plan requires that properties around the busy crossing eventually be transformed into a village that would reflect the area’s rich history, similar to Merchants Square in Colonial Williamsburg. In the late 1700s, Kempsville was a bustling river port and also served as the county seat from 1778 to 1823.

Residents hoped the city’s master plan for the area would celebrate this history in the developments eventually constructed. But around April, residents got wind of a proposed housing development that they say is not in line with the Historic Kempsville plan.

Developer Jack Pope with Hampton Roads Housing Company has submitted a preliminary proposal to develop Kempes Village near the site of the former Kemps Landing Magnet School. It would include three housing complexes. Residents at several area civic leagues say the proposed project deviates from the original plan and met last week with city officials and Pope to discuss their concerns.

Doug McLiverty, president of the nearby Fairfield Community Civic League, has spent the past few months trying to make some of his Kempsville neighbors aware of the proposed project.

“I’ve been involved in the master plan for the Historic District for many years and originally, that was supposed to be mixed use and capitalize on a Colonial theme because it’s a very historic area,” said McLiverty. “And then a proposal came in that was just housing units, not mixed use. And it’s not what was in the original plan.”

McLiverty and other Kempsville residents are concerned that the 246 homes would adversely affect an area already choked by heavy traffic.

The project would allow for some housing in the former Kemps Landing Magnet School building, which would be renovated to accommodate a mix of senior and workforce housing units.

The city wanted to find an adaptive reuse for the historic 1930s-era building, which was originally Kempsville High School. The proposal does that, with the creation of The Schoolhouse, which will include a mix of residential units that will be housed in the renovated school.

Under the proposal, the remaining units would be built into new buildings adjacent to the school site as part of two other housing developments, The Landings and The Cottages. Those remaining units would be upscale rental units, said Clay Bernick, the city project manager for the Historic Kempsville Plan.

Bernick said the housing development is just a proposal at this point and would have to undergo a series of public meetings throughout the process. The city owns the land at the southwest corner, Bernick said, so it would first have to sell it and then the city planning commission and City Council would have to vote to approve a rezoning of the property.

In November, Bernick said the city’s economic development office requested proposals to develop the southwest corner of the intersection.

The city received two proposals – one for a strip shopping center that would include an adaptive reuse for the old school, turning it into a pharmacy. The other proposal was for Kempes Village.

Developing the property is not a quick process, Bernick said, and the proposed project is still in the early phases with time for concerned homeowners to weigh in.

In the coming weeks, McLiverty will organize a citizen advisory committee that will meet with city officials to fine-tune the proposal and give feedback on how they would like to see the property developed.

“At this point, no development would be better than the wrong development,” McLiverty said, adding that he wonders if a faltering economy is the reason the city only received two proposals to develop the property.

“If the economic environment has changed, then we should modify our plans to be in line with the economic conditions today,” McLiverty said.

Although Kempsville home­owners may be unhappy about the proposed project, Bernick said it conforms to the architectural guidelines established in the Historic Kempsville Plan. The master plan for the area allows for a mix of retail and office space, as well as residential, Bernick said. All approved developments will have to adhere to numerous architectural, landscaping, signage and parking requirements.

While the plan allows for a variety of businesses, Bernick said, it doesn’t get specific about location.

“It didn’t lay out what goes where,” Bernick said. “It only established a vision for the whole area. The specifics on how to get that look – the plan was very silent on those things.”

Bernick said the Plan also requires that proposed projects not overload the area with traffic.

Pope’s proposed project will consist of two-and-a-half and three-story Colonial style buildings with landscaped courtyards and hidden and on-street parking.

The project will be similar to two of Pope’s other projects in Norfolk: The Heritage at Freemason Harbor and St. Paul’s Place. Both rental property developments are located within historic districts in Norfolk and are the model for what Pope is proposing in Kempes Village.

Pope realizes some Kempsville residents would like to preserve much of the green space around the area, but said that may not be economically feasible.

“It can’t just be all parks,” Pope said. “There are economic realities for the four quadrants of that intersection.”

The common ground he’s found with residents is that the area needs to be impressive and reflect the area’s history.

“That area is the gateway to Kempsville,” said Pope, a former Kempsville resident. “It’s an unfortunate gateway right now because it’s not the most successful regional shopping center. This intersection needs to be really spectacular. It needs to say this is where we got started historically.”