THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240367
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 64 lines
Those concerned about the future of Church Street can be heard tonight when the city unveils alternative plans for the revitalization of the historic stretch of road.
Barry Long, an architect with UDA of Pittsburgh - the firm hired by the city to develop plans for the area - will explain changes to the proposal that was first aired in July.
The state is condemning commercial buildings and some homes along the east side of Church Street to make way for the $11.5 million street-widening project, expected to be completed by the year 2000.
Under the plan, the thoroughfare will be expanded from two lanes to four between Goff and Granby streets. Some of the work has been completed.
The plan bills the corridor as a new landscaped commuter gateway into downtown Norfolk.
In July, some residents told planners that they wanted displaced businesses relocated, parking to make up for the on-street spaces that will be lost and a good mix of community-friendly businesses and homes to replace the buildings that will be demolished. Some charged the city with targeting black businesses for demise during earlier stages of the project.
But city officials and Long assured residents and business people that they understand the importance of neighborhoods to the life of the city and would respond to public opinion. They said that they would come back with several alternative proposals and, if none of those suited, they would go back to the drawing board again.
The section of Church Street in question was once the business heart of a thriving black community.
In the first half of the century, four movie theaters, a host of restaurants and nightclubs and other black-owned businesses catered to the discriminating tastes of middle-class African Americans. Black Navy men on shore leave flocked to Church Street.
But the quantity and quality of businesses along the street began to decline during the mid-1950s. The demise was attributed to the exodus of people from nearby inner-city neighborhoods into the suburbs.
Today, vacant lots and rundown premises are scattered among some black-owned businesses still thriving along the corridor, and many people who have long made their living there are at a loss to know how to start over again in another location.
The ragged and patched appearance of the business district stands in stark contrast to the neighborhood it fronts. The streets of Olde Huntersville are lined with new and restored homes and dotted with many under construction.
At a separate meeting in July, owners of companies in the Mid-Town Industrial Park near the Church Street stretch said they were irked by narrow, one-way streets and vacant buildings in adjacent residential neighborhoods, and complained about crime. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
CHURCH STREET PLAN
Area Shown: Project area
[For complete copy, see microfilm]
TO ATTEND
What: Meeting on revitalization plans for Church Street.
Where: The United House of Prayer for All People, 1206 Church
St., Norfolk.
When: Tonight at 7.
KEYWORDS: CHURCH STREET REDEVELOPMENT by CNB