DATE: Friday, October 17, 1997              TAG: 9710170671

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   61 lines

A COST OF NEW SCHOOL: 27 TREES

The emotional debate over the fate of 80-year-old W.H. Taylor Elementary School in upscale West Ghent centered on a new issue Thursday: trees.

The Chesapeake Bay chapter of the Sierra Club held a news conference near the shaded campus to ``express our sadness'' that 27 trees will be lost under a city-approved plan to demolish Taylor and build a new school in its place.

But supporters of the new school - including a relative of W.H. Taylor - outnumbered environmentalists at the rainy rally and hammered home a central point of their own:

Yes, 27 trees would be lost, but they would be replaced by 95 maples, gums, oaks and crape myrtles. Plus, landscape blueprints for the new school include planting 631 shrubs and preserving a handful of old shade trees.

``The landscape plan is gorgeous,'' said Joan Taylor, a descendant of W.H. Taylor, and a West Ghent resident herself. ``Give those new trees five years or so, and everyone will wonder what all this screaming was about.''

The debate over Taylor - renovate or raze? - has been tearing at this wealthy old neighborhood near downtown Norfolk since the issue surfaced last winter.

Touching quality-of-life issues such as historic preservation, public education and citizen participation in government, the controversy has caused some neighbors to stop talking to each other.

Given such explosiveness, the Sierra Club was reluctant to get involved. But the environmental group decided to voice its concern, without taking sides, that in public policy decisions at all levels, the environment not get short shrift, said group chairman Fred Adams, a Virginia Beach resident.

``If these trees must be destroyed for the sake of progress, we strongly urge the planners to provide a landscape design that will ensure a natural appearance in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood,'' Adams said.

Barry E. Moss, chief architect of the new school, said the landscape design does just that. In fact, Moss said, he insisted that more trees be preserved than what contractors first suggested.

The design has been revised once at the insistence of the city Parks and Forestry Bureau, and an expert will be hired to oversee protection of old trees that might be damaged by construction equipment.

Approval of the design is needed to obtain a city building permit; the permit is the last regulatory hurdle that must be cleared before school construction can begin, Moss said. The concept of a new school has been blessed by the local PTA, the School Board and the West Ghent Civic League.

Still, opponents are not giving up. Assembled as the Parents, Alumni and Friends of Taylor School, they insist that no trees need to be cut down.

Alice Grimes, a group member, said that if a new Taylor were built in the footprint of the existing school, with students bused to nearby Meadowbrook during construction, the city could save as much as $187,000 and still keep its canopy of trees.

Added Meredith Sabol, an opponent who lives across the street from Taylor, ``It's just very sad that we're going to turn a beautiful green space into something you'd see in Virginia Beach or Chesapeake,'' where newer developments with fewer trees are common. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

As the Sierra Club spoke for the trees Thursday, Peggy Herron, Joan

Taylor and others gathered to support a new Taylor school. KEYWORDS: TAYLOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

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