THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508170133
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Beth Barber
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Larkspur residents aren't pleased about a proposed new Department of Social Services building on South Independence between Edwin Drive and Silverleaf.
Drive by. See why.
The site seems to have advantages: City-owned land (why city-owned is a long, sad tale) might actually suit a city need. Olympia Development Corp. proposes buying the parcel, constructing the DSS building and leasing it back to the city. The city gets the building up faster, $2 million in its treasury, maybe state and federal rent aid and the land back on the tax rolls. But . .
Proximity to Route 44 is essential for DSS clients. But people don't drive as crows fly. The current site plan leads clients on a hunt for 44 to get home: 44 is north, but all lanes out of the DSS lot head south. You can see where you want to be (on Holland/Independence going back to 44), but getting there means either a harrowing left turn somewhere down the road or a right that you hope circles back to 44.
Take the right and you're in Larkspur, one of an unwelcome estimated 1,500 more cars per weekday (and probably more cars more hours per day as work and other requirements of welfare reform kick in). Residents don't want fourth-story windows peering into their back yards and bedrooms. Who would? Besides, you can wind out of the DSS lot onto Silverleaf to Green Meadows to Princess Anne to Edwin, to Independence, to 44. That's if you've been there, done that. If you haven't, you wind up lost.
This is a drive-by shooting at a months-old proposal, I realize, but a committee of city staff anticipated my instant misgivings and others. It also raised, unfortunately, another objection: It thought, mistakenly (!), that Olympia's site didn't have water. ) But the committee had other good reasons for recommending instead a Runnymede Corp. proposal: Build the DSS building on land it owns on Rosemont Road nearer the existing DSS facility, more accessible to Route 44, less intrusive to residential neighborhoods and about the same annual cost to the city.
Council wasn't convinced. Of course it wants the $2 million for the city's own South Independence parcel. Two million dollars aren't chickenfeed, but with the right zoning would that property sell for that (or more) on the open market? And for a use that wouldn't rightly ruffle the neighbors' feathers?
Meantime, other suggestions have surfaced, unofficially. One combines the city's seven acres and an adjacent three acres to get better egress and a two-story building. That's an improvement.
Here's another: Move Social Services next door into Celebration Station and solve several problems - the NIMBY reaction, the School Board's wish to be rid of its unwilling (unwitting?) lease on the building, and sell the existing DSS building for big bucks which, plus the proceeds from the South Independence site, might cover the cost of the switch.
As with other proposals, supporters of each option say only dirty-pool politics can kill it; opponents of each say only dirty-pool politics produced it.
Given the imperative of solving traffic problems and the wisdom of working with residents, Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday night (Council chambers, 6 p.m.) but postpone a vote. Good. Delay means time for questions. Maybe for answers too. by CNB