DATE: Wednesday, April 30, 1997             TAG: 9704300003

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

SEEKING WIN-WIN DEALS

For regionalism to work, says Portsmouth City Manager Ronald Massie, each city must ask two questions.

The obvious one is, ``What do you need from the other guy?''

But just as important, Massie said, is the second question, ``What are you willing to give?''

``As long as cities concentrate on what they're going to take from the table, it's difficult,'' Massie said. ``We have to concentrate as much on what we're going to take to the table.''

Those are words of wisdom for the region to live by. When two or more localities ask both questions, regional cooperation becomes possible and mutually beneficial deals can be struck.

Since last fall, Massie and Suffolk City Manager Myles E. Standish have been asking each other what their cities need and what their cities have to offer.

Specifically they are investigating how land-rich, water-poor Suffolk and water-rich, land-poor Portsmouth can pool resources to cause something to happen that would not otherwise happen. Can they create economic growth from which both cities would benefit?

One possibility would be to attract an industry that requires plenty of water. Between Portsmouth's water and Suffolk's land, an attractive deal could be offered if a way were worked out to share the benefits.

Another possibility would be a cooperative effort by the two cities to develop property around two reservoirs in Suffolk. Portsmouth bought the land and water from Suffolk around the turn of the century. Together, the two cities might develop golf courses on the property or find some other non-polluting use. Both cities might benefit.

Much of the two city managers' discussion has focused on the two cities' shared border along the I-664 growth corridor.

Later, Massie said, perhaps Chesapeake could be involved, and possibly Isle of Wight County.

But first, the two cities need to cooperate.

``You need to walk before you try to run,'' Massie said. ``Trust has to be built.''

In the southwestern part of South Hampton Roads, trust has built over the past decade between the city of Franklin and neighboring Southampton County. Late last year the governing bodies for the two localities approved a growth-sharing deal to create a huge-economic-development opportunity where none existed.

Southampton County would lay water and sewer lines in a 17-square-mile area of county land bordering Franklin. City and county would share the cost of connecting those lines to Franklin lines.

Thirty percent of the tax revenue from development served by those new lines would go to Franklin, the rest to Southampton County. Franklin would agree never to attempt to annex the land. A statewide moratorium on cities annexing county land is in effect, anyway.

The deal made sense because Southampton County lacks water and sewer lines in the 17 square miles and Franklin, with about 9,000 people on nine square miles, is short on land but has water and sewer capacity to spare.

Because of the cooperative deal, Union Camp already is building a $15 million plant in the area and plans to at least double the plant's size within five years. The plant could have gone to any of several states, but the deal, along with labor union cooperation, saved the day for the city and county. Within five years, the plant should pay more than $140,000 in annual taxes to the county and more than $60,000 to the city.

That's just the start, said Jim Bradshaw, who is economic-development director for both the city and the county - an extremely rare and unusually enlightened cooperative arrangement.

Among other things, the city-county deal creates one 1,500-acre industrial site with all needed connections. The site would be one of the largest available industrial sites in Eastern Virginia, Bradshaw said. He is working with two very large industrial prospects now, he said.

All because of regional cooperation.

Since the city-county deal involves tax sharing, Virginia law requires the approval of a majority of the county residents, though not a majority of the city residents. (Where cities and counties are concerned, Virginia law is often quirky and counterproductive.)

That county vote is slated for November, with approval expected.

``We have very close relations with the city of Franklin,'' said Southampton County Administrator Michael Johnson. ``Both of us have come to the conclusion that what benefits one benefits the other.''

We should all hope that the cooperative spirit between Franklin and Southampton County and between Suffolk and Portsmouth someday proves contagious.

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