THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100260
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 38 lines
Ernest Freeman, director of planning in San Diego and former senior planner in Norfolk, has been hired as the city's new planning director.
Freeman replaces John Dugan, who left Aug. 1 to start a private consulting business. Freeman will start work Sept. 16.
He has served as planning director in San Diego, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Portsmouth.
He was a senior planner in Norfolk from 1973 to 1984 and supervised much of the planning for development in Ocean View. In 1984, he was named citizen of the year by the Ocean View Lions Club.
Freeman returns to a city entering a new phase of downtown development, with many major projects either completed or under way.
Construction soon will begin on the MacArthur Center mall, and many other downtown projects, such as the new branch of Tidewater Community College and the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel, are close to completion or are in place. If the MacArthur Center is successful, the city expects to see a boom of more private, commercial and residential development.
The council has also pledged to put renewed emphasis on neighborhood development, which is part of the planning shift that has come with the city's change to a ward system.
``We are pleased to welcome Freeman back to Norfolk,'' said City Manager James B. Oliver in a prepared statement. ``While familiar with Norfolk, he returns with a wealth of experience from other cities he has served that have and are facing similar problems and seek to take advantage of the same opportunities as is Norfolk - from revitalizing downtown while preserving neighborhoods, to coping with military downsizing.''
Freeman has a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of Illinois and a bachelor's degree in sociology and political science from Southern Illinois University. by CNB