THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 10, 1995 TAG: 9503080185
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
What is the city going to do with the old Churchland High site on High Street?
As a desirable commercial site in the city, it needs to go back on the tax books.
Currently, the city is looking at a proposal that includes a discount store and one of the new super markets scheduled to move into Hampton Roads.
The residents of Woodbine, adjacent to the site, are not too happy with the prospects.
The property has been vacant since the new high school was built on Cedar Lane and apparently the neighbors want to keep it that way.
I called Dot Evans, one of those whose home backs up to the property. The plan doesn't make any sense to her because a new grocery store simply would make it hard for businesses such as Churchland Market to continue to exist. A discount store, she argues, would drive out existing stores in the immediate area.
``We already have empty stores in Churchland,'' she said. ``Why do we need to mess up this pretty piece of property with more stores?''
The neighbors also fought a plan to put an upscale shopping center and office complex on the site, a project that might have been even better for Portsmouth. But we lost that one, just as we lost the proposed area of small shops next to Coleman's, where the YMCA now stands, because the neighbors didn't want it.
Basically, it appears, the folks who live there don't want anything on the land. I'm sympathetic to their concerns, but I am even more concerned about Portsmouth's future. Can we afford to leave this prime site empty?
Many prominent citizens live in the small residential neighborhood, a group that has a lot of clout for its numbers.
``This neighborhood has provided a lot of leadership for this city,'' Evans reminded me.
That's true. Now why can't that leadership see the importance of getting some taxpaying entity on that land and set out to find something compatible with the neighborhood if they don't like what the city has in the offing?
Sometimes I wish we could just turn the clock back to 1985 and stop the nonsense that has followed the construction of a new Churchland High.
I saw as positive the move to free up that High Street property for office and commercial functions. However, I had no idea at the time that nearby residents would see everything but the school as offensive. Actually, an upscale office or a shopping center would seem preferable to high school noise and athletic fields, but that is not the feeling of Woodbine residents.
If the site had been developed five years ago, the city would have had income from it to help pay for the Churchland school. I didn't think the proposed upscale center would be derailed.
Nor did I have any idea at the time that the city would be building a second new $35 million school we can't afford.
The whole thing has been a business fiasco and there really seems no end in sight for the mess.
City Hall probably will pacify the Woodbine folks. They will lie low until the next proposal comes along instead of going out and working with the city to find a project that would be compatible with them.
The city will continue to struggle to pay for the new Churchland High while we very deliberately go out and add another $35 million or more to the city's debt.
The situation just gets worse and worse.
While the city is using all of the available capital investment funds to build new high schools we don't need, existing schools are suffering for lack of maintenance money. By the time we get around to doing something to the existing schools, there'll be a great hue and cry to build new elementary and junior high schools.
The domino effect of the new Churchland High will be felt for years to come in this city.
Much as we'd like to turn back the clock, we can't.
We all have to live with the current situation. That includes the property owners in Woodbine, who would fuss about higher real estate taxes as loud as anybody else.
Maybe they can work with the city to develop the idle property to the best interests of everybody. If they can't, then City Hall just has to move on - whether the Woodbine residents like it or not. by CNB