WILLOUGHBY WANTS TO CHART A FUTURE FOR ITSELF
BY DEBBIE MESSINA THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Reach Debbie Messina at (757) 446-2588 or debbie.messina@pilot online.com.
NORFOLK Willoughby is a neighborhood in flux. Over the decades, it has evolved from a close-knit bayside hamlet of family-owned cottages to a more transient neighborhood dominated by apartments and other rental properties. Now, there are plans for large-scale condominium development and possibly even a small convention center. Willoughby is changing rapidly, said Bob Hazelette, the civic league president. We need to get a map for the future.That map will be the Willoughby Corridor Study, which gets under way this week with small group interviews plus a public forum at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Ocean View Senior Center. We'd like to take the good things from the past and the good things from the present and put it together and create a workable design for the future, Hazelette said. During the next four months, Raymond L. Gindroz, the city's urban design consultant, will work with the community to develop a plan for residential, commercial and civic life in Willoughby. The study area is the peninsula from 4th View Street west to the tip of Willoughby, about 138 acres in all. Other studies have been conducted in the Ocean View area, especially in East Beach, but none have concentrated on Willoughby. Residents are ready for their turn. This is our plan, Hazelette said. It's not being mandated. We're not being told to do it. We've come together to ask for it. WANT TO GO? The Willoughby Corridor Study Citizens Input Forum will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m.Wednesday at the Ocean View Senior Center, 600 E. Ocean View Ave. One of the biggest concerns of Willoughby residents is the number and condition of rental properties. About 75 percent of the homes are rentals. Many of them need work. Getting property owners who are not residents of Willoughby to participate is probably the key to the success of the study, said Bob Layton, a Willoughby resident and Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority board member. We want to work with them to find an acceptable direction to take and to encourage them to reinvest. Another concern is density, especially with the planned new developments. The Spectrum at Willoughby Point is a $200 million development with 327 condominiums and townhouses that will be built at the base of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The Shoals is a condominium, hotel and small convention center development proposed at the old Harrison's Fishing Pier site at 4th View Street. Some residents wonder if these make sense, said Steve Barney, a housing authority development manager. There's no plan to tell them if it's a good thing or a bad thing.Barney said one possible outcome of the study is to designate pockets in Willoughby where high density development could occur. Another concern is what to do about traffic that cuts through the neighborhood to bypass congestion on Interstate 64 on the way to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. This is all up to the citizens, Barney said. We don't have any vision at this point. It's their community. They've got to live there. We want them to come together as a group and decide.After residents express their concerns and visions this week, the consultants will condense and study the issues. They'll return in early March for a three-day workshop to map out a plan. The purpose is to improve the neighborhood, said City Councilman Don Williams, a Willoughby resident. We'll do the things we can afford to do, and we'll do some long-range planning for the other things.