THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410220283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
At City Hall, it's a matter of image. All those heavy metal grates make Granby Street look downright dangerous to visitors.
For merchant Daniel Lee, image takes a back seat to security.
He wants one of those grates, so he can go home at night after closing his shop. Until he gets the city's permission, he's sleeping in the store to protect against late-night burglaries.
``I'm scared,'' Lee said. ``I'm the only target. I'm the only merchant with no gate.
``After 5 o'clock, there's nobody on the street down here.''
Lee used to have a security grille when his Manhattan clothing store was located on the 300 block of Granby St.
But when he moved to the 400 block three weeks ago, Lee discovered that the city's rules had changed in recent years.
Downtown Granby Street now is governed by zoning rules under the city's historic overlay district.
Also, a security grille might be judged an encroachment into the public's right of way because its roll-up mechanism - located above store doorways - juts out over the sidewalk by about 15 inches.
``One question is whether it's appropriate for a historic district,'' said R. William Miner, Norfolk's assistant director of planning and codes administration.
Another issue is aesthetics.
``It's the image it presents,'' Miner said. ``If you were a visitor and saw everything locked down like that, what would you think?''
Nevertheless, Norfolk's Design Review Committee had voted 4-2 to let Lee install a roll-down security grille at his new location.
The hangup is at the Planning Commission, where members voted 5-1 on Oct. 13 to defer action.
``They have questioned whether or not we should continue to allow security grilles on Granby Street,'' said Mary Miller, a senior city planner. ``The concern was that they give the wrong impressions to visitors, and is there another way to provide the same amount of security but is more aesthetically pleasing?
``That's what we're trying to find out.''
The commission has given the planning staff until mid-November to develop a policy on security grilles.
``We're looking at costs, whether other alternatives would work, insurance implications and how other cities have handled it, although we're not having a lot of luck on that aspect of it,'' Miller said.
On Thursday, Miller described some of the alternatives to Lee.
She said there were shatter-proof, plastic windows as well as windows that have a clear protective film that prevents the glass from giving way after being broken. Police recently demonstrated such materials to the Planning Commission.
Breakproof windows can cost as much as $17 a square foot, said Carl Lee, a crime-prevention officer. The shatter-proof, plastic film that can be applied to regular glass windows costs about $5 a square foot, he said.
Daniel Lee said it wasn't a question of money. The security grille he wanted to buy for his store would cost $9,800, he said.
Lee said he would consider using alternatives if he can be convinced that the windows wouldn't need to be replaced after each attempted burglary, or that his alarms wouldn't be tripped even if the glass wasn't broken.
The security-grille issue took the city's planners by surprise because the devices were not considered when Norfolk updated its zoning laws 2 1/2 years ago.
Lee ``was the first application for a security grille,'' Miller said. ``This is the first time we've had to deal with this issue.''
The current zoning was not in effect when Lee opened his first store on Granby Street seven years ago. But this summer, his old location was absorbed into the site of the new downtown campus of Tidewater Community College.
Lee said he installed a security grille at his old store about six months after opening. He said his store had been burglarized or broken into seven or eight times before putting in the grille.
The crimes stopped when he installed the security grille.
Lee said he has not had any break-ins at his new location, but there were two attempts that triggered an alarm and woke him up.
He's tried to discourage break-ins by hanging a curtain over his display windows every evening.
``I understand his problem much more now,'' Miller said after talking with Lee. She said she will arrange a meeting between police crime-prevention officers, Lee and possibly other merchants.
But Lee wants City Hall to know that Norfolk is lucky to have merchants like him who persisted on downtown Granby Street when most other businesses closed in recent years.
``Without us,'' he said, ``this would be a ghost street.''
And, he added, ``I want to sleep well.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, Staff
Granby Street merchant Daniel Lee wants to install a security grate,
so he can go home at night. Until he gets permission from the city
of Norfolk, he's sleeping in the store to protect against late-night
burglaries.
Daniel Lee used to have a security grill when his clothing store was
located on the 300 block of Granby St. But when he moved to the 400
block three weeks ago, Lee discovered the rules had changed.
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