THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 18, 1994 TAG: 9410180007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
While Portsmouth had hoped its fortunes would be lifted by Virginia's first race track, the city was smart not to sacrifice planning for a horse race.
No sooner had New Kent County been announced as the track site than word came that Portsmouth and a developer had been discussing alternate plans for the area envisioned for Portsmouth's track. Details of the private-public partnership may be made public within the week.
Among the possibilities: a commerce park between Victory Boulevard and McLean Street and Interstate 264 and Greenwood Drive, ``affordable'' townhomes and apartments near Highland-Biltmore, costlier homes near Bide-A-Wee Golf Course and a public recreation area.
The project area would take in much of Fairwood Homes, a rundown, low-income housing development dating to World War II. Already, 375 dwellings have been boarded up, part of the total of 900 expected to have made way for the 312-acre track.
Now that the track decision is in, Bush Construction Co. can proceed with the plan it announced in 1984, to completely rebuild Fairwood Homes within 20 years.
A company anticipates that construction would start in the area with empty dwellings and that the affordable housing would offset displacement. That's particularly important, considering Portsmouth's heavy population of low-wage earners.
As in all public-private partnerships, the tricky part will come in the details. While Portsmouth wants the project areas transformed from liabilities to assets, taxpayers will be wary of any joint venture that could involve considerable public investment for private gain.
Mutual gain is the goal, and the commerce park could help assure it. Municipal gain from commerce far exceeds gain from residential development, but Portsmouth needs both.
If, as one of the owners of the project area said, the plan would help Portsmouth increase its tax base, it's on the right track. That, after all, is what the horse-track bid was all about, and that one got away. by CNB