THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9511300155
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
About 100 Little Leaguers and their parents packed the City Council chambers Tuesday to ask for help with their overcrowding problem.
The Green Run Little League has 1,000 players but only a handful of unlighted fields. Scheduling is a nightmare and practicing is impossible, league spokesman Bob Spadaccini told the City Council.
``They can't service the children,'' said Spadaccini, a father and member of the Little League. ``They've been dealing with this for five years.''
Members of the group would like the council to give them 25-30 acres of Lake Ridge, a 1,200-acre tract on Princess Anne Road that the city bought last year. They would like land near the amphitheater, which is now under construction, in time for the 1997 Little League season.
With new fields, lighting and adequate parking, the league could continue to grow, Spadaccini said, and could host regional and national tournaments that would bring more tourist dollars to town. The Green Run group, which plays on property owned by the homeowners association, is the only Little League in the city that does not use public land for its teams.
The council made no promises to the Little League, except to look into the possibility of providing extra land. The group is one of many that has asked for land in the Lake Ridge parcel which adjoins Princess Anne Park.
A steering committee established to decide land uses in Lake Ridge will hold its first meeting next week. The committee plans to hold several citizen workshops, beginning this month to gather ideas from the public. Those workshops have not yet been scheduled.
For more information about the workshops and the process for suggesting land uses at Lake Ridge, call Stephen J. White, special projects manager with the city's Planning Department, at 427-8610.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB