THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 29, 1995 TAG: 9503290436
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
In little more than a year, area residents and tourists should be able to tap their feet to, sing along with and scream their approval of some of the hottest performers in the country.
The Virginia Beach City Council unanimously approved a plan Tuesday to build a 20,000-seat amphitheater off Princess Anne and Landstown roads.
The council voted 11-0 to support a zoning change allowing the amphitheater to be built and establishing limits on the noise that will be produced by the facility.
About 100 people turned out to give the council their opinions on the project.
The city's intended partner in the $15 million project, Cellar Door Productions of Virginia, hopes to schedule the first concert for mid-April 1996.
The council will vote in a few weeks on the actual contract with Cellar Door.
But plans are to begin work by May 1 on the site to meet the 13-month deadline. Many popular bands and performers prefer outdoor stages, said Cellar Door president Bill Reid, whose company owns eight across the nation.
Entertainers such as Elton John, whom Reid hopes to book for the still-unnamed Virginia Beach theater, prefer the atmosphere and the crowd capacity of an open-air stage, Reid said.
Other acts that might use the amphitheater could include Jimmy Buffett, Garth Brooks, Whitney Houston, Garrison Keillor and the Virginia Symphony, said Reid, whose Virginia Beach-based company is one of the largest bookers of performers in the country.
The amphitheater will seat up to 7,500 patrons under a curved canopy and another 12,500 on a grassy hill that will be built behind it.
The April-to-October amphitheater season will include about 40 major events, Reid said. The facility will also be available at other times for public events, such as high school graduations.
There were about 60 supporters at the meeting. They said the theater will boost the city's quality of life and encourage tourists to extend their stays in Virginia Beach.
Carol Lehr, a Kempsville resident, told the council she thinks the amphitheater would ``bring life back into the area.''
Many supporters wore stickers provided by The Coast, WKOC-FM93.7, a local radio station that has heavily promoted the project.
Most of the approximately 40 opponents said they didn't oppose an amphitheater, they just preferred that fans have fun in someone else's back yard. The Salem Lakes and Rock Creek neighborhoods, where the bulk of the opponents live, are about a half-mile from the back of the planned amphitheater stage. They are separated from the site by a thicket of trees, but residents are worried the stage will upset their peace and lower property values.
They also expressed concern about the process of approving the amphitheater. Many residents said they didn't know until earlier this month that the amphitheater would be located so close to their homes.
``I am disappointed the communities weren't allowed to give input at an earlier date,'' William Whiteside, president of the Rock Creek Homeowners Association said.
``You don't live there, it's not your house,'' he told the council. ``At eleven o'clock at night, when they're still rocking and rolling, you won't be bothered, but we will be.''
Anticipating residents' concern about the theater, architects oriented the stage to send the sound away from nearby homes.
Jack Wrightson, a sound engineer who specializes in amphitheaters, told the council planned sound walls and the structure of the project will help reduce noise in the surrounding neighborhoods. Wrightson said the crowd noise from the theater ``will be no worse than'' the sound that enters the neighborhoods now from baseball games at nearby Princess Anne Park.
The concerts will be scheduled to end by 11 p.m., Reid promised.
Several speakers criticized the amphitheater as too expensive and a bad use of millions in tax dollars.
The city will contribute the 85 acres the amphitheater will sit on, at a cost of about $650,000; it will provide as much as $8.8 million for construction of the theater, and it will spend up to $4 million extending Landstown Road and providing other infrastructure for the facility.
Cellar Door has promised to put up about $6 million.
City Council member W.W. Harrison Jr., who has led the fight for the project, said he expects the city to recoup its investment in the amphitheater in five to seven years.
He said he is still working on the business deal with Cellar Door, which he expects to bring before the council sometime next month.
Even if the two sides can't come to an agreement, last night's council action will allow the city to pursue another partner to put an amphitheater on the site. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
JOHN EARLE/Staff
Color photo
AN ARTIST'S RENDERING OF THE SITE
THE DETAILS
A COMPARISON
GARY ALLEN/Raleigh News & Observer
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB