Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994 TAG: 9407120018
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
But the proposed city of Ocean View faces an uphill struggle in removing itself from Norfolk, the city that has claimed it for the past 35 years. And the City Council member who represents the area said the idea is politically motivated and stands no chance of succeeding.
``Since Norfolk took over, the area has been depleted of all city functions and services,'' said Michael Bond, an organizer of the Ocean View city movement. ``The people in this area have been neglected.''
A committee of seven organizers in the past couple of weeks has drawn up a declaration of independence - The Declaration of the Free People of Ocean View - and a seal for the new city, which would have about 80,000 residents.
That would make Ocean View larger than some longstanding Virginia cities. It would be about double the population of Charlottesville and Petersburg and would become a major new urban player in the Hampton Roads region.
The Ocean View secessionists have an attorney preparing petitions that they hope will lead to a special referendum next year, possibly as early as March, on whether to let the community go its own way, Bond said.
If the referendum passes, the General Assembly would have to approve a city charter. But Randy Wright, Ocean View's representative on the Norfolk City Council, said Norfolk's charter also would have to be changed to accommodate a separate Ocean View, and he said that is not likely to happen.
House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, the author of most Virginia statutes governing how jurisdictions are formed, said state law allows a city to deannex a portion of its territory.
But Ted McCormack, assistant director of the Commission on Local Government, said such deannexations usually involve fixing boundaries between cities and counties to avoid splitting a subdivision or giving up a section of state or federal highway and its required maintenance costs.
McCormack said he was not aware of any Virginia city's surrendering land for the formation of another city.
Wright called the independence movement political. In the last council election, his opponent was Bond.
``He just doesn't want to let go,'' Wright said. ``So I guess he figures by creating a new city, he might could make it. That's the bottom line to it.''
Bond listed a string of criticisms against what he called ``an established, elitist'' power structure in Norfolk that he contends is putting commercial development efforts exclusively in downtown.
In contrast, he said, the city's razing and redevelopment of a blighted section of Ocean View calls for mostly residential construction.
``The thing is, the people who live out there don't want to see seven miles of homes on the beach,'' Bond said. ``They want to see a commercial section, some hotels, bed-and-breakfast tourism, tourism for families.''
by CNB