Make openness part of Waterside

Five proposals to reshape Norfolk's Waterside complex received their first public airing last week.

Ideas cover the waterfront, from a conference center development that would stretch from Harbor Park to Main Street to a beach music emporium to an assemblage of clubs and theme restaurants to a sports arena.

Council members and the public learned some of the fanciful details - a Ferris wheel, a pro basketball team - but not a fundamental one: how much will it cost the city?

Mayor Paul Fraim and Councilman Barclay Winn called for transparency and asked City Manager Marcus Jones to provide financial information, including how much developers have asked the city to pay.

Jones argued, with support from Vice Mayor Anthony Burfoot, that he did not want to hurt the city's negotiating position with developers. Jones plans to bring a recommendation and financial details to council in a month or two.

Any project that demands tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and a swath of the city's waterfront should be open to public scrutiny, including the portion residents will be asked to contribute.

Virginia Beach recently learned that lesson when howls of protest helped put the kibosh on a convention center hotel project that would have required more than $60 million in public investment.

As Fraim noted, people in Norfolk love the location. Waterside helped launch a downtown renaissance that awakened residents to the city's potential.

But it has fallen into disrepair and now stands mostly empty. City officials have mulled its future for years and sought input from residents on how best to resuscitate the site.

That openness should continue. City officials have a responsibility to find the best solution to Waterside's problems and to negotiate the best deal possible for taxpayers. But taxpayers have a right to know what that deal is if they are being asked to pay for it.