THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408090403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
The City Council is poised to launch a $20 million to $40 million, 30-year plan to create a Central Business District in the Pembroke area - two decades after the site was rezoned.
The first phase of the project to create a business, shopping, residential and entertainment hub in Virginia Beach could, if approved, start next year and continue until 2010.
Focusing on an 80-acre core area, the first phase would include landscaping and streetscaping on Virginia Beach Boulevard between Independence Boulevard and Thalia Creek and on Constitution Drive, as well as a 1,500-vehicle parking garage.
A small forest in the heart of the district would be transformed into a five-acre, pedestrian-friendly ``central park.''
As a first step, the City Council on Sept. 8 will consider new street designs and changes to the city's Comprehensive Plan, said Thomas Pauls, the city's comprehensive planning coordinator. Then the Planning Commission will study the proposal for several weeks and return it to the council with a recommendation. If the first phase gets the green light, construction on the redesigned streets could begin as early as January.
The second phase of the work, planned for 2010 to 2025, would include more landscaping and streetscaping on Virginia Beach Boulevard, the extension of Constitution Drive to Bonney Road, redesigned intersections, a Thalia Creek greenway and two more parking garages.
Pauls stressed that all the plans are preliminary and could change.
The Pembroke area was rezoned for a high-rise office park in 1973, but it received little attention until 1986 when a group of Virginia Beach business people organized the Central Business District Association. Three years later, the City Council approved the association's concept and allocated $150,000 to create a master plan, which the council approved in 1991.
After shelving the plan for several years, the council began re-examining it a year ago, about the time Norfolk announced its plans to build a $270 million upscale mall as part of its downtown revitalization efforts.
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said Norfolk's economic development agenda is its own and that Virginia Beach is determined to be recognized as more than just an East Coast tourist stop.
``We already have a diverse population and economy,'' Oberndorf said. ``I think you can be more than one thing.''
She cited a rebounding economy and recent private development in Pembroke as key reasons the council is ready to move forward on the Central Business District.
She stressed, however, that the decision to focus on Pembroke does not mean the city is abandoning its other business centers - Corporate Landing, Hilltop, Lynnhaven and Kempsville.
``We're not shifting, we're expanding,'' she said. ``This shows an increased desire to see to it that our corporate sectors grow as heartily as the tourist area has grown.''
Robert B. Smithwick, Norfolk's economic development director, said he understands Virginia Beach's desire to identify a corporate focal point in the city, but he called pursuit of the Central Business District plan ``foolhardy.''
``It is an initiative that will never come to pass,'' he said. ``Virginia Beach is an outstanding residential community. Virginia Beach is an outstanding tourist attraction in many markets. Regionalism will never be a realism as long as cities in the region try to be something they're not. You are what you are.''
Virginia Beach City Councilman Linwood O. Branch III, who represents the city's Oceanfront Borough, disagrees.
``We're creating an entirely new type of vision for Virginia Beach,'' Branch said. ``It will be an environment that we don't have anywhere else.''
Virginia Beach's resort strip is concluding its own 10-year, $93 million improvement and beautification plan, financed by a council-approved fund that collects special taxes on resort hotel and restaurant revenues and from franchise and amusement fees.
Another taxing plan, called tax increment financing, could be used to pay for the Central Business District plan this way: Business owners make improvements to their properties, those properties are assessed and taxed at higher values, and the merchants then pay higher taxes to help offset the cost of improvements.
As one of the first steps in the Central Business District project, the city is spending $1.3 million on a stormwater retention pond off Columbus Street to collect the drainage from future parking lots and streets in the district.
Columbus Village, a 16-acre shopping and entertainment complex under construction at Constitution Drive and Columbus Street, will be the first business to hook up to the stormwater system. The retail center, which will house a 12-screen movie theater, a giant book store and several restaurants, is scheduled to open by December.
But planners see such development as only the start of something much bigger.
Gerald S. Divaris, a real estate developer and former president of the Central Business District Association, envisions an urban area unlike the traditional downtowns in Norfolk or Portsmouth, an area of both residential and commercial activity.
The concept calls for a place, Divaris explained, that is ``alive with activity all the time, a place that accommodates the automobile without denying the pedestrian; a place for the young and old; businessman, resident and shopper alike. It is a high-quality, mixed-use place.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
IT'LL WORK
Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf says the plan will help the
city's corporate growth keep pace with tourism.
NO, IT WON'T
Robert Smithwick, Norfolk's economic development director, calls it
``an initiative that will never come to pass.''
Staff color graphic by PAI
THE PROPOSED DOWNTOWN
[Includes color map]
The Virginia Beach City council is considering a plan that would
transform the Pembroke area into a Central Business District, the
city's downtown area. The heart of the district is shown with the
dotted red line.
For copy of map, see microfilm
THE TIMETABLE
1995 to 2010: Create a business, shopping, residential and
entertainment hub. Landscape and streetscape Constitution Drive and
Virginia Beach Blvd. between Independence Blvd. and Thalia Creek.
Build a 1,500-vehicle parking garage. Turn small forest into a
``central park.''
2010 to 2025: More landscaping and streetscaping on Virginia Beach
Blvd. Extend Constitution Drive to Bonney Road. Redesign
intersections. Build a Thalia Creek greenway and two more parking
garages.
Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
A 12-screen movie theater is being built at Constitution Drive and
Columbus Street. The theater will be part of Columbus Village, a
16-acre shopping and entertainment complex.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL
PEMBROKE AREA CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
by CNB