Drawing lessons from Virginia Beach plans

Virginia Beach began the year with a smart move, delaying indefinitely a controversial plan to build a headquarters hotel for the convention center that would have used nearly $67 million in public money.

The delay offered city officials and a split City Council the opportunity to cool off, assess what went wrong and learn from mistakes.

That’s important, because a more reasonable project is in the works, one that would appeal to residents as well as visitors, would require much less public investment and has the potential to transform the resort area.

But instead of learning lessons from the failed effort to secure a convention center hotel — foremost among them rushing a decision — the council is running pell-mell toward the next one.

The Dallas developer tasked with bringing an entertainment complex to the 8.5 acres where the Dome used to sit has been given until March 31 to line up financing for the project, estimated to cost $188 million.

“Either he brings it on real soon,” Mayor Will Sessoms said, “or we’re going to go elsewhere.”

City officials contend that neither the hotel nor the Dome site project has been rushed, that both have been council priorities for years. The development authority was directed to start work on them in 2007.

But the hotel deal was first presented to the council — in closed session — just before Thanksgiving. Had a story not appeared in The Virginian-Pilot that weekend, the public would have had its first look at the plan for a $109 million hotel and conference center on Dec. 6, with a vote scheduled for a week later. How is that a thorough vetting?

Michael Jenkins, who has developed entertainment projects around the world, plans a 42-venue complex at the Dome site. It would be unlike anything on the East Coast.

Jenkins won the right to develop the site in 2008, but the city didn’t give him the term sheet, the conditions under which the investment would be made, until September. Four months to find tens of millions of dollars worth of financing is not enough time.

Rather than pushing a deadline, Virginia Beach needs to have extensive discussions about how such a project will affect taxpayers, how it will change the city and what the risks are. The city desperately needs consensus, not just on the council but also from residents and businesses, on the next project.

It needs to engage the public, share its vision for the resort area and how this project fits in, and justify the public expense. Business and civic leaders should vet the proposal. Low construction costs and low interest rates should not be the best argument for taking on this or any project.

Even in this economy, even in this atmosphere, a worthwhile proposal will gain popular support. Some people — even some on the council — will never support any public project for any reason in any situation. But they are a tiny minority who serve only to obstruct, not to improve quality of life in Virginia Beach.

What city leaders can’t ignore are current conditions, which they’ve helped create.

The council faces an already distrustful public, a $90 million deficit in the 2013 budget and a November election in which five of 11 seats are up. Council meetings are contentious, with a barely civil tone. Some members are calling for their colleagues’ defeat.

Less than three weeks ago, city officials spent part of their retreat compiling an extensive list of the city’s recent successes. They included the preservation of Pleasure House Point, plans for the Thalia Greenway, the attraction of for-profit colleges to Town Center, improvements in Burton Station, high graduation rates and low crime rates.

Virginia Beach could add to that list an impressive entertainment center, a project residents would use and support. But the council must take the time to do it right.