THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140479
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
It is the kind of neighborhood where a teacher lives next to a retired stockbroker. It is the kind of place where people walk down tree-lined sidewalks, past homes with front porches, to a square with shops where families live above the stores.
It is East Ocean View, as sculpted by Miami architect Andres Duany.
The design unveiled Tuesday is the product of the weeklong, intensive process known as a ``charrette.'' Duany and his staff collaborated with city officials and residents to come up with the new plan.
The process ended Tuesday evening with a presentation by Duany to more than 200 people, including residents, City Council members and housing officials. The design is meant to replace more than 1,000 homes in the upper bay streets, homes the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority intends to raze.
Over the last week, city officials and residents were free to wander into the Senior Center in Ocean View, where the charrette took place, and give their opinion or listen. Even people who opposed the clearance of the upper bay streets - and their homes - felt they had been heard.
``I liked the process,'' said Rose Tilghman, who has lived in her home here for 35 years with her husband, George. ``But I have no answer to whether my house will stay or go; that's my only concern.''
In the early days of the charrette, Duany and officials discussed saving some homes. But the exercise ended with no assurances for owners such as Tilghman.
And even more uncertain was the fate of hundreds of renters who now live in the brick and wood apartment buildings. These structures will almost certainly be torn down. And few of the renters would be able to afford to live in the new development, even with its planned broad mix of incomes.
On Tuesday, Doyle Hull, chairman of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said the agency would probably clear and develop East Ocean View in phases, moving west to east, rather than bulldozing the entire neighborhood before development begins.
This method would save money for the NRHA, which still has not secured all the estimated $35 million needed for project. It would also belikely to give a temporary reprieve to residents who live in the smaller homes in the eastern side of the area.
Duany received a standing ovation Tuesday night. But a lot has to happen before his pretty pictures become a reality.
The NRHA, which hired Duany, must approve some or all of his design. Then, the redevelopment agency must bulldoze homes, build new streets, and sell lots to builders, who in turn must sell then to future homeowners. Although housing officials have been hesitant to set any completion dates, Duany said Tuesday night that it could take 5 to 10 years to finish his design.
The architect is scheduled to deliver a final, more polished version of the plan to the NRHA after Christmas. After that, it will be presented to NRHA commissioners for review and approval, Hull said. He added that he expected to take it before the council for approval as well.
If any part of the process breaks down, the new vision of Ocean View may not get built.
The neighborhood's design is a product of Duany's theories on development, tempered by the suggestions of city officials and residents, and the constraints of the site.
The new neighborhood would have 400 to 600 homes that would sell from $70,000 to $500,000. It would include about 20 percent rental housing.
Last year, there were 1,500 homes in the neighborhood, which was more than 90 percent rental.
Perhaps its most striking feature is how Duany and his staff have folded in most of the present structure of the neighborhood.
The master plan keeps most existing streets, even most existing trees. This saves the redevelopment agency money on new roads and sewer lines. It also offers a chance of preserving at least a taste of the neighborhood's past and character.
Under the plan, Pleasant and Pretty Lake avenues become elegant boulevards lined with houses and apartments. The current numbered streets become alleys between the new streets.
Those new streets carefully wind around the existing network of pine and live oak trees. They are a valuable asset to the new neighborhood, Duany said, because it takes decades for trees to mature, and it's especially difficult to grow them near the beach.
A particularly long line of trees, conveniently located near the middle of the area, shades an avenue leading down to the Bay and a proposed salt-water swimming pool there with a hotel or inn. Some side streets are dog-legged to preserve existing trees.
The trees Duany admires are now mainly in the yards of the people who will be moved out. Most will become parts of the numerous narrow public parks sprinkled throughout the neighborhood.
Other features of the design include:
The present flat bridge across Little Creek on Shore Drive, which the state has scheduled for replacement, becomes an arched brick or stone bridge that seems transplanted from Paris. Cars and pedestrians would use it. Duany hopes the state can draw on new federal funds to make the bridge particularly charming.
The bridge would lead into a half-circle plaza with the development's commercial and neighborhood center.
The new neighborhood, as drawn, is bigger than originally announced. It stretches across Shore Drive to 21st Bay Street and includes 30 additional undeveloped acres of the Bay Point development. That change stretches the total size of the neighborhood to 130 acres, up from 90, said NRHA officials.
The East Ocean View effort is the latest in a long list of bulldozing projects undertaken by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, starting with parts of downtown in 1951. Virtually all have cleared away neighborhoods of lower-income residents.
Other major clearance projects have included the Atlantic City neighborhood in 1957; Rosemont, starting in 1962; the Old Dominion University area in 1963; East Ghent and the Norfolk State University areas in 1969; Church Street and Huntersville in 1971.
Apart from work by the NRHA, the City Council sponsored the destruction of the 1,483-unit Robin Hood Apartments, once Norfolk's largest privately owned low-cost housing complex, and has supported the private redevelopment of the 700-unit Lakeland Apartments and the 644-unit Lafayette Shores.
Since 1969, the city and the NRHA have tried to balance demolition with neighborhood conservation projects by lending millions of dollars for home renovations. Redevelopment officials declared last year that the East Ocean View tract was far too blighted for rehabilitation.
The bulldozing of East Ocean View has been going on for months. The agency already had spent more than $4.48 million to buy and begin clearing at least 47 other properties, resulting in the relocation of more than 60 households. But it got a much publicized push with the leveling Tuesday of the Sea King motel, a symbol to many of the area's recent blight. MEMO: Mike Knepler, staff writer, contributed to this story
ILLUSTRATION: PAUL AIKEN/Staff color photos
PAST
The Sea King Motel came to symbolize the crime and decay in the
community. A crowd of officials and residents watched as the NRHA
began tearing the motel down Tuesday.
PRESENT
Project Architect Andres Duany, left, and David Rice, executive
director of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, wait to
explain the new design for East Ocean View Tuesday.
FUTURE
This view shows a rebuilt and redesigned Shore Drive Bridge, leading
into the planned new neighborhood of this section of East Ocean
View. The church occupies a site reserved for public or civic
buildings.
Photo
The master plan for the new East Ocean View neighborhood keeps
Pleasant Avenue and Pretty Lake Street. The existing numbered
streets become alleys in the new development.
Map
STAFF
EAST OCEAN VIEW
SOURCE: Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority
by CNB