THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407300100
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Beth Barber
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Norfolk has a downtown. Virginia Beach wants an uptown. There's a difference?
If the Beach is careful and lucky, the biggest difference will be that people will want to come uptown, to Pembroke, not just to work but to shop, to play - maybe even to dwell? - so it won't cost local taxpayers a fortune.
Norfolk has spent big bucks, city bucks, on downtown glitz, glitz of which the Beach seems curiously envious. Why curiously? Because for every Norfolk city father who's convinced the downtown investment will pay, there's an average family of four who pay annually $1,380 in real-estate taxes on their $100,000 house (vs. $1,140 at the Beach), $45 in electric utility tax (vs. $28.80), $90 in water utility tax (vs. $28.80), $48 in stormwater utility fee (vs. $32.88), $32 in cable tax (vs. $13.33), $74.04 in residential refuse fee (vs. $0) - and drive downtown maybe twice a year, marveling at how nice a road can be.
They drive to work, to shop, to sleep on streets that are potholed, patched and not the safest place to be after dark.
And while they pay for a downtown they seldom see, thousands of people who work there drive home and pay taxes to some other city.
However, and not incidentally, Norfolk has Nauticus, and Waterside, and the opera house, and the ballpark, and (if Macy's new owners don't back out of the deal), a Nordstrom. Good: Let somebody besides Norfolkians have to hit the interstate to find a selection of brand-name pantyhose.
There's a lesson in this litany: Learn from others' mistakes. Just as Suffolk should not, in its pursuit of upscale housing, use up its newfound 10 years' worth of water in five years of development, the Beach, in the pursuit of uptown, shouldn't forget the rest of town.
To the uptown crowd, the Beach has enough town. What it lacks is a town center, not to be confused with the Municipal Center. Among other things (like location), it lacks the requisite urban ambiance.
No, the uptown now envisioned at Pembroke combines commercial, financial and cultural activities with a lake, landscaping and pedestrian walkways. Even, someday, light rail. Visionary indeed.
The lake makes a virtue of necessity: Stormwater regulations require it. As an inducement to business, the city will cover the $1.3 million tab, an investment in redressing the city's serious imbalance between business and residential revenues.
Thing is, will more office buildings right it?
Will more office buildings at Pembroke right it?
Will more office buildings at intersections where traffic now sits five minutes waiting for lights to change fix it?
Will pedestrians evolve from a citizenry that drives miles to the Stairmaster, six blocks to the mall and squawks ``Walk!'' like Maynard Krebs squawked ``Work!''?
For a truly urban ambiance, shouldn't there be room here for people to live, as well as to work and shop?
For a city that isn't really a town but an agglomeration of neighborhoods, is one ``uptown'' enough?
For city taxpayers, is it one too many? A city commission, City Council, consultants say not. But businesses will have the last word. by CNB