ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609130040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
Remember last winter, when black Roanokers were alarmed by plans to build 11 music clubs and restaurants on Henry Street and lure 1.3 million tourists there?
Remember how they urged that Henry Street not become just a jazzy tourist attraction but be rebuilt around the needs of the surrounding Gainsboro neighborhood?
Five public workshops and seven months later, the project is coming more into line with those wishes.
The city's final recommendations won't be announced until Oct. 3, but consultants and planners outlined these new ideas at a workshop Tuesday night at the Roanoke Civic Center:
* A new public body - still to be formed, but something other than the controversial,12-year-old Henry Street Revival Committee - would implement, monitor and enforce plans for the once-famous black commercial thoroughfare.
* At least half the members of the new committee would be from Gainsboro or from elsewhere in Roanoke's black community.
* Ownership of Henry Street businesses, structures and land by blacks and other minorities would be encouraged. Most of the properties were bought up years ago by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Many black Roanokers have asked for a chance to reclaim the street.
* Henry Street would feature neighborhood-oriented businesses as well as restaurants and entertainment spots. A theater, ice cream parlor, drugstore and other shops were suggested at earlier workshops.
* A new neighborhood plan for all of Gainsboro would be drawn up with "full participation" by residents, property owners, institutions and businesses.
* sWork needs to be done to build a better relationship between black Roanokers, city government and the housing authority.
John Marlles , Roanoke's chief community planner, apologized to the audience of about 60 for the city's release of Henry Street's initial plans before the public had much say about them.
"In hindsight, we would have done things differently," he said.
At his request, the audience broke into three small sessions to record ideas on who should appoint the new Henry Street committee and how it should function.
"We realize we made some mistakes," said Marlles. "We want to prevent making those mistakes the next time around."
Mayor David Bowers, new chairman of the Henry Street Revival Committee, sat in on some of the breakout sessions.
At one, the Rev. Lenord Hines said Bowers should not choose the members of a new Henry Street body. "We do not want the mayor, the City Council or any of the city officials to pick who's going to be on the committee," Hines said. He was echoed by at least one woman in his session.
Bowers, who had moved by then to another small-group session, said there that City Council probably would make appointments to the new committee.
As for who should be represented on the new body, the list ranged from Gainsboro residents to other Roanokers with ties to Henry Street to local developers and lenders to city workers "not involved with plan development" up to now.
People raised many questions: Will vendor carts be allowed on Henry Street? How did a Roanoke family lose ownership of the former Hotel Dumas, now the Henry Street Music Center owned by Total Action Against Poverty?
Why not set up a community development corporation to oversee Henry Street? If there's going to be "family entertainment" on the street, who will determine what that is and is not?
Why didn't the city use plans for Henry Street drawn up in the 1980s by the Gainsboro Neighborhood Development Corp. instead of paying Hill Studio of Roanoke to draw up yet another plan? How might the new Second Street/Gainsboro Road project, now under construction, change the Henry Street land-use plan?
City planners promised to take ideas and questions gleaned Tuesday night and share them with the Henry Street Revival Committee before it releases its final proposal for Henry Street at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Roanoke Civic Center Exhibit Hall.
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