THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507110250
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHAWN TERRY AND TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
During a public hearing Monday, the City Council decided, 5-2, that an $8.7 million shopping center at the former Churchland High School site is the best way to spur economic development in this fiscally stressed city.
The vote was for preliminary approval, with a second vote to be made July 25.
Residents questioned whether the shopping center would really help development. Rather, they said, it would kill the competition all around the shopping center, and the city could potentially lose money. They also suggested that the project would lower property values in their upscale neighborhood.
Raymond Turner, a planning commissioner ``speaking as a private citizen,'' said residents should start thinking about the entire city's future rather than their ``selfish'' concerns.
Developers and city officials said the 33-acre shopping center would bring in 450 full- and part-time jobs and $542,000 in projected tax revenue.
Michael J. Blachman, a Woodbine resident, urged the council to delay its vote for at least two months while studying the economic impact of the project.
``This is like putting a skyscraper on a postage stamp,'' Blachman said. ``I don't think you can buffer this project from the neighborhood. This is not the project for this property.''
Blachman and other residents suggested that the city pursue an office park and residential development similar to one the neighborhood initially opposed in the late 1980s. The project died when the developer went bankrupt.
Council members James T. Martin and P. Ward Robinett went along with Blachman's suggestion of delaying the project while the city asked for an economic impact study.
``I'd hate for this project to die a slow death by our continually delaying,'' said Vice Mayor Johnny M. Clemons.
Mayor Gloria O. Webb said she, too, feared the project would disappear unless council members were ``courageous enough to vote their conscience.''
Bernard D. Griffin Sr. listed everyone who approved the proposed shopping center before Monday's council meeting. The list included the city's economic development director, the planning director, the acting city manager, the Planning Commission and the Portsmouth division of the Chamber of Commerce.
``Here we are asking for delays,'' Griffin said. ``Where does that put us as decision makers?''
In Monday's vote, both Robinett and Martin voted against the project.
Thirteen of the residents have joined a local developer, Arnold H. Leon, in a lawsuit to block the project. The lawsuit claimed that the city illegally transferred the property to its Industrial Development Authority and that it improperly zoned the 33-acre parcel for commercial use.
Boston-based Development Options Inc. plans to begin construction on the shopping center by mid-September. by CNB