DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160271

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   56 lines

BEACH PLANNERS ASK CITY COUNCIL TO REVAMP PANEL, NOT DISBAND IT

The mission - building an attractive city - unites the Planning Commission and City Council.

The method, on the other hand, has recently divided them.

To help the groups get back on the same design wavelength, a majority of planning commissioners agreed Monday at a special workshop to reach out to the City Council for help.

Seven of 11 commissioners agreed that Chairman Robert Vakos should write a letter to the council asking that both groups work together to come up with a plan that ensures future development makes the city look good.

The workshop was in response to a letter signed by 10 of 11 City Council members last week asking the Planning Commission to disband one of its unofficial committees - the Design Advisory Group. The group has been unofficially charged for about five years with helping developers improve the looks of their projects.

The council's letter said the group overstepped its boundaries and became another layer of bureaucracy that imposed its personal views and tastes on private property owners. Councilwoman Nancy K. Parker was the only member who didn't sign the two-page letter.

The group was charged only with making recommendations to developers who voluntarily agreed to work with its members. It could deal only with rezoning and conditional-use permit cases.

On Monday, several of the planning commissioners expressed a desire to revamp the group, without doing away with it entirely.

They said the group did more good than harm, and that any action by the group that received criticism was unintentional.

Plus, several commissioners added, the city might soon be faced with a building spurt it hasn't experienced in years. That could happen if 12,500 more people come to the area with the possible transfer of 11 Navy jet squadrons to Oceana Naval Air Station, and if a five-year water ban is lifted after water begins flowing from Lake Gaston.

``We need defined guidelines,'' said Commissioner Barbara Ferguson, a Design Advisory Group member. ``I do not believe we need to do away with this group.''

Commissioner E.R. Cockrell Jr. agreed: ``I don't think we're going to help Virginia Beach by disbanding this committee.''

But, Cockrell said, the Planning Commission cannot disregard the council's letter, and must speak to each council member individually about the issue.

``I know that we have a good goal that we want to make this a better city, a pretty city, a quality city,'' which doesn't differ from what the City Council wants, Cockrell said.

Commissioner Judy Rosenblatt, in some ways, echoed the council's concerns.

She said the design group deviated from its initial charge, which was to help those who lacked the professional expertise at the beginning of the city's rezoning or conditional-use process.

``There's got to be some controls'' over what the group can and can't do, Rosenblatt said. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH PLANNING COMMISSION

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