Kempsville park takes shape in middle of construction project

VIRGINIA BEACH

The city’s master plan for the historic Kempsville area continues to take shape.

Work crews have begun the enlargement of the Kempsville-Witchduck- Princess Anne roads intersection. A new park near the intersection, required by the Historic Kempsville Development Plan, was completed in July, although there’s no parking yet and the surrounding area remains under construction.

Motorists might have noticed a pavilion, which is part of the park, featuring a cedar-shingle, dome-shaped roof and white Colonial columns constructed in April.

Clay Bernick, city project manager for the Kempsville plan, said the $212,000 pavilion is part of a nearly three-acre park. The architectural details hint at the area’s Colonial history, Bernick said, “so that it would refer back to an earlier time when Kempsville was the seat of the whole area.”

Also near the pavilion is a large pond.

“It’s needed for drainage, but it also creates a focal point in the area,” Bernick said.

The stormwater retention pond will have a bulk-headed wall. A walkway, benches, landscaping and lights circle the pond now.

“Whatever private development takes place would complement and enhance the park as a focal point,” Bernick added, referring to possible residential, office and retail buildings that might locate within the Historic District.

Bernick speculated that as the project continues, businesses adjacent to the park might include similar design elements – such as additional plantings, fountains or gazebos.

Laurie Harmon, a Kempshire Manor resident who lives amid all the road construction, has seen the recent changes but wonders about the only remaining building that still stands amid the construction. On the north side of Princess Anne Road, Harmon said there is an old bank building with a “for lease” sign posted on the property.

“It’s just curious,” she said. “They took all the other buildings, but yet this bank still sits there. It’s been abandoned for at least two or three years.”

Bernick said the building owner was not interested in selling the property to the city and plans to remarket it. Because of where it’s located, he added, the city did not have to buy the property because it won’t be in the way of the enlarged intersection.

Following the intersection’s realignment (to view a map of the realignment, see the sixth image in the photo gallery with this story, found on the left side of this web page), the bank property will be across the street from the park, on the corner of Princess Anne and Witchduck roads.

The city expects work on the enlarged Kempsville-Witchduck-Princess Anne intersection to be completed by March 2014. About that time, a pedestrian bridge is to be completed from the park southeast toward Kempsville Elementary School.

Farther north, the widening of Witchduck from Bonney Road to Interstate 264 is nearly complete.