Wards Corner Civic League

Hey Wards Corner! Thank you to all of our great neighbors who came out for our big neighborhood picnic on Sunday, July 28^th. It was really nice to see all of you there and meet some new faces. I had a great time and hope that you did too!

Special thanks to Harris Teeter and Farm Fresh for donating most of the food, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church for loaning tables and chairs, and to the volunteers that assisted – especially Sue, Liz, and Sherry – for all of your invaluable help. We look forward to seeing all of you, plus some more of our friendly neighbors, at next year’s picnic. And hopefully at some other neighborhood events and meetings in-between.

Scott Guirlinger

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

At the request of members of the Wards Corner Civic League, the City of Norfolk’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Open Space has installed gates at the two existing entrances to the North Shore park.  Additionally a third entrance and gate was installed near the intersection of North Shore and Millbrook Road.

Neighbors had expressed concern that young children may run out of the park and into the roadways.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The June 2015 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 15th at 6:30pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The president’s message:
Dear Neighbors,

Summer is just around the corner and schools will be out and hopefully we will all enjoy some relaxing vacation time. Hopefully this summer will be great and we will once again be spared any major hurricanes just like we were last year. However make sure you are prepared just in case. Over the summer please continue to enjoy the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. There are many great activities to be enjoyed at this facility. If you are not a member yet please consider joining. Please take advantage of this exceptional facility in our back yard. Also please consider joining our social media Next Door Ward Corner at www.nextdoor.com. It is a great way to keep up with many of the things happening in our civic league area.

The June meeting marks the last meeting of the first half of the civic league year until we resume our schedule again in September. We will not have a newsletter in July and August. We will however post any news that you should know about on our Wards Corner Civic League website and the Wards Corner Now website. We will not have a meeting in July and August unless absolutely necessary.

This is the time of year that I like to thank all of those folks who have made our civic league great over the course of the year. First, I wish to thank Barbara Ross for her dedicated service as our newsletter editor and board member. She has done an excellent job of preparing the newsletter each month. This takes a significant amount of time to complete and Barbara’s newsletters are informative and always on time. Barbara, we thank you for your service and look forward to your newsletters again in the fall. Enjoy your two months of newsletter free time. Speaking of keeping us informed, a hearty thanks goes to Martin Thomas Jr. for keeping our website http://www.wardscorner.com up to date and informative. We also thank Martin for the good work he is doing on the Planning Commission for our area and the city. Also a special thanks to Joan Griffey and Ray Duron for keeping the records of our meetings and ensuring that our finances are in order. Joan also thanks for your continued efforts as Chair of the Beautification Committee with the Greater Wards Corner Task Force. A thank you also goes to our 2nd VP, Sue Classick for organizing the delivery of our newsletters each month with our many newsletter carriers. Thanks also to our many newsletter carriers for their time in delivering our newsletters to you. This also is no small task. It is yet another valuable service that we are providing to all of the residents of the Wards Corner Civic League area residents. It is also the envy of many of the civic leagues in the Greater Wards Corner area as well as citywide. Thanks also to Betty and Ray Duron for organizing and conducting our adopt-a-street cleanups over the several years. Thanks also to the members of our civic league who help in each of these cleanups. I thank Scott Guirlinger for all his help as a board member. Thank you for organizing the evenings at Guads and planning our civic league picnic. We are pleased that you have joined us. Thank you all for your service.

I also wish to thank our Police Officers who keep us safe every day and also provide us with needed information each month at our meetings. They do an outstanding job. We especially thank Officer William Old for his service to our civic league. Please make sure we follow their advice about how to keep ourselves safe. With the rise in car larcenies, this means keeping our cars locked at all times and not keeping any valuables in our car. It also means calling the police at either the emergency 911 number or non-emergency number to report any and all crimes that are witnessed. If the police don’t receive the calls, the crime is not registered with them and there is no record.

Finally, I extend a very grateful thanks to all of our paid members for your continuing support and attendance at our monthly meetings. Your presence and input at our meetings is much appreciated. Please tell your neighbors to join us in attendance and membership as more numbers mean a bigger voice at city hall.

One thing is for sure. The Wards Corner Civic League is one of the strongest and most powerful civic leagues in the city and you helped us with getting that distinction. The dedication and commitment of the membership of the Greater Wards Task Force, and area Civic Leagues (including and especially ours) will continue the push with our city elected officials and senior city management staff to help us correct and develop the area and rid it of the dysfunctional and criminal element that has unfortunately been drawn to the area. We will not be taking the summer off but will continue our fight. Please join us in that fight as numbers speak to elected officials. Maybe by the time the September meeting comes around we will see new businesses open or opening in the shopping center on the Northeast corner of the business district. You know that shopping center with all the vacant parking spaces that exist now!

Please have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer. We will continue our work to improve our area throughout the summer. We hope to see you again in June and then in the fall at our September meeting. Please also join us for our civic league picnic on June 27th at the North Shore Ave playground.
Thanks,

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The May 2015 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 18th at 6:30pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The agenda includes an invitation to the Norfolk Sheriff’s office.

The president’s message:

Dear Neighbors,
The signs of spring are all around us. The grass is growing and flowers are blooming. Our neighborhood really looks great when all the lawns are cut and the flowers and plants are blooming. We should all be proud. Hopefully the cold is gone and we can get outside to enjoy all the spring activities. Summer is right around the corner, school will be out and we will all be vacationing or hopefully taking a break from work.

New business activity is continuing in the Business District. The Mattress Firm building is now up and once the inside is finished look for that store to be opening soon.

The Wards Corner Public Art was installed on April 30!
Here is the City of Norfolk Press Release:
Gordon Huether Studio, led by artist and founder Gordon Huether, was selected to design and fabricate a public art installation for the Wards Corner neighborhood. The sculpture, Wards Corner Gateway, will be installed on the median on Granby St., near North Shore Rd. on April 30, 2015.

The City of Norfolk’s Public Art Program worked with Gordon Huether Studios to develop a concept that embraces local identity, fosters a strong sense of place and creates a significant gateway for the City of Norfolk. The installation enables all viewers, whether local or visiting, an opportunity to pause and reflect about the continued positive and exciting changes taking place in the neighborhood.

The Wards Corner Gateway installation is made up of two components: a bird-like structure inspired by the famed intersection where Alfred C. Ward once operated his iconic general store, and a polished aluminum base. The large wing-like component features a black and white aerial photograph of the Wards Corner intersection and was taken by a staff member of the Virginian Pilot in 1956. This part of the installation is made of translucent polycarbonate material. The wing-like component is then mounted atop an eleven-foot tall aluminum base, which causes the ‘Wing’ to point toward the sky. Wards Corner Gateway will be illuminated at night, featuring programmable color-changing lighting.

The installation and its upward orientation reference this neighborhood’s future: its continued upward growth and development in cultural, economic and community matters.

Also on that WardsCornerNow website is this information about a new restaurant opening soon. The franchise owner, Jeff Rhoades, presented to the Wards Corner Civic League in March on his new-to-the-region pizza restaurant, Your Pie. Your Pie was founded in Athens, Georgia and currently has locations in Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. Jeff has plans to open six Your Pie franchises in the Hampton Roads region and Wards Corner will be his first location as well as the first location in the state.

Jeff indicated he chose Wards Corner based on the success of places like Harris Teeter and Moe’s and hopes to soon finalize his lease agreement for leasing the southernmost end unit that abuts Louisiana Drive.

The leased space allows for a planned 65 seats inside, 7 of which are at the bar, plus outdoor eating. Expected hours of operation are likely to be from 10am to 9pm daily.
The restaurant will offer pizza, salad, a gelato station, 7 beer taps, about 40 bottle beers, and wine. Your Pie plans to open around the beginning of July. Read more about the restaurant on the website.

The Wards Corner Civic League voted at our meeting on March 16 to support Your Pie’s special exception to serve beer and wine on premises. The Planning Commission will vote on the special exception in May and City Council will likely vote in June.

This is all good news as it represents a continuing interest in businesses that want to open stores in the Wards Corner Business District. This is a complete turnaround from 15 years ago when businesses were leaving or had already left.

Let’s keep up the good work and praise the new businesses that are opening in our area. Being positive goes further than posting negative comments about these establishments and what they bring as some have done from other civic leagues. Thanks to our membership for being positive.

Finally a special thanks to Ray Duron and his cleanup crew for their hard work cleaning up our adopt- a- spot as part of the Great American Cleanup. Thanks goes to Ray and all his volunteers for the work they do. The area looks great.

I hope to see you at our next meeting on May 18th, 2015 at the Wellness Center.

Sincerely,

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The March 2015 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 16th at 6:30pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The agenda includes a update from Senator Lynwood Lewis.

The president’s message:

Dear Neighbors,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Norfolk Police Officer William Old and the other officers that serve with him for their outstanding service to our Civic League and Civic League area. Officer Old is always present at our civic league meetings and always gives us an excellent report of the crime and crime statistics for our area. His demeanor is very pleasant and he is professional in his delivery of the information he presents. He doesn’t sugar coat any of his report and always tells it like it is. Office Old is also always responsive to our questions and almost always able to answer the question. If not he gets back to us at our next meeting or sooner to me if asked. We are very fortunate to have such a fine dedicated officer as William Old serving our area. He is doing an outstanding job in serving our area and we are very grateful for that and we sincerely thank him.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rick Dempsey, a civil engineer with the Department of Utilities. Rick has been to our civic league meetings many times and most recently at our last meeting. He comes when we ask and sometimes he asks to attend. From the beginning of the area “sewer project” , he has provided us with detailed information about all aspects of the project. He shows us charts of the project and is always able to answer our questions. I know, like many of you, that this project has been long and it has been somewhat inconveniencing to us because of the streets being torn up. Yet he has always been able to assure us that things are on target and will get better as the project moves forward. For this, we are appreciative and we also sincerely thank him for his service. He and the staff and crew of the utilities department as well as the contractors doing the project are serving us well.
The city of Norfolk is fortunate to have such fine individuals employed and serving us as Officer William Old and Rick Dempsey do every day. In other good news provided by Martin Thomas Jr. appearing on Wards Corner Now and NEXTDOOR is in regards to the “future of the Meadowbrook School site. It is expected that the next budget will include money to demolish Meadowbrook School and to build a new fire station on the western portion of the site. The remaining site will be left as open space to be used as a dog park or otherwise as may be decided in the future by the neighborhoods.
Once the budget goes into effect this summer, the City will begin the process of designing the fire station. Designs for both the fire station and the park will be in collaboration with the neighborhoods and civic leagues in the Meadowbrook area.
It is expected that the entire project will be complete within 2 years of when the budget goes into effect on July 1.”
In other news, the Crime Prevention Awards Committee (made up of city agencies and citizens) and the Norfolk Police Department is hosting a celebration of our neighborhoods, the city and the Norfolk Police Department. They would cordially like to invite all of our neighbors in Norfolk to come meet each other on Saturday March 28th from 10am – 1pm. The event will be held at the 2nd Patrol Division located at 2500 N. Military Hwy. Meet, greet, have fun, learn opportunities to get involved in and have a chance to win a door prize. Please come out and join the fun.
Our meet and greet event at Guads the other week was very successful as I noted in the last newsletter. In fact so successful that we are having another meet and greet on March 18th from 630PM- 8PM at Guads. Come out and enjoy time with your neighbors and get to meet the Board Members of the Civic League. Happy Hour prices are in effect so please come and join us.
Finally please consider joining Wards Corner nextdoor. Go to nextdoor.com to join. It is an excellent way to keep up with what’s going on in our neighborhood and interact with your neighbors as much as you want to.
Hope to see you at our next civic league meeting on March 16th.

Many thanks

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The February 2015 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 23rd at 6:30pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The agenda includes a conversation with Granby Elementary Principal and an Utility update from Rick Dempsey.

The president’s message:

Dear Neighbors,

I wish to thank all of you who attended the last civic league meeting that was held jointly with the Talbot Hall Civic League on January 20th at the Wellness Center. The purpose of the meeting was to hear the final proposal by Art Collins on his development project on Newport Ave. Following a detailed presentation by Mr. Collins and his staff, the membership of both civic leagues held a lively but civil debate on the project. A final vote of 44 to 4 in favor of the project ended the meeting. The proposal then went to the Planning Commission on January 22nd where it also passed. It now goes before City Council for final approval. You can expect to see demolition of the current apartments begin any day now with construction of the development to follow over the next few years. I am pleased that our two civic leagues were able to work together on moving this development proposal through the city processes. This is an example of how working together pays off favorably for all parties involved. Please also realize that the way the project was approved insures that it must be built as approved. Any changes must come back to the civic leagues for hearing and approval.

I would also like to thank those folks who came out to our first meet and greet at Gaud’s Restaurant on Wednesday February 4th. Approximately 50 people from our civic league and the newly forming Crossroads Civic League met and enjoyed food, drink, laughter and good conversation. It was a great evening. We will do it again as many suggested. Thanks to Scott Guirlinger for making the arrangements for this event.

Finally, I am happy to report that our Civic League area had a very good year in 2014. More stores opened including the grand opening of K&K Square at Wards Corner along with the new Harris Teeter grocery store. Other stores opened up in the business district on all of the corners. We saw more improvements to our city infrastructure this year including those to our streets, sewer lines and gas lines. Soon we will have a new public art display on Granby Street near the existing Wards Corner sign. In addition, the Wards Corner Business Association became viable again after a 10 year hiatus. Crime in our area, although still present, was less this year than in previous years. Thanks to Officer Bill Old, our Community Resource Officer, for looking out for us. Throughout the year we heard many great speakers at our monthly meetings and continued to work for the improvement of the area.

Therefore I am happy to report that the State of our Wards Corner Civic League and Greater Civic League Area has improved and is continuing to improve. Let’s keep up the momentum. Join our civic league if you haven’t already and help us achieve more great things.
Many thanks

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Neighbor meet & Greet scheduled for February 4 at 6:30pm at Guads.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The January 2015 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 20th at 6:30pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The agenda includes a follow-up on the Collins Enterprise Development.

The president’s message:

Dear Neighbors,

Our January meeting will be held on Tuesday January 20th at 7:00PM at the Wellness Center instead of January 26th. PLEASE NOTE THIS CHANGE. We are making this change in order to hold a hearing on the Collins Property Development proposal on Newport Ave. A few of us have met with Mr. Collins and his staff several times over the holidays trying to come to a reasonable agreement on his development proposal prior to his Planning Commission hearing on January 22nd. Mr. Collins will make a presentation regarding his proposal and there will be several art renderings of this development complex for us to view. There will be time for questions and answers at the end of that presentation. This will be a joint meeting with the Talbot Park Civic League. At the close of this meeting we will ask for a vote on whether we as a civic league are supportive or not of this proposal. Following that meeting I will send a letter to the Planning Commission of our decision of support or not support of this proposal. This is a very important meeting and we would like to have a good turnout. We will have to live with this complex for many years so we want to make sure we get the best Development mix for our neighborhood as possible. Please join us.

As the New Year begins we will be once again provide you with speakers on timely and relevant issues at our civic league meetings. We also want you to attend and bring your issues and concerns to us so that we may help address and/or rectify those issues and problems. You may keep track of the civic league happenings in our monthly newsletter but your presence at the meetings is greatly appreciated. Please consider attending. Please also visit us at http://www.wardscorner.com or http://www.wardscornernow.com

Finally please note that our meeting date for February has changed due to the holiday on our regular meeting day. The February meeting will be the 23rd at 645PM. The meeting will be at the Wellness Center. At that meeting we hope to have the Principal of Granby Elementary as our speaker. We also will have our annual election of officers. I hope you can attend.

Thanks for allowing us to continue to serve you as officers of the Wards Corner Civic League.

Happy New Year to all and best wishes for a prosperous and healthy year.

Sincerely,

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

The December 2014 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 15th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.

The agenda includes a follow-up on the Collins Enterprise Development and Robert Hitchins will talk on a Piece of Norfolk History.

The president’s message:

Holiday Greetings to all. The holiday season is once again upon us. It is a time for great anticipation, reflection and joy as all of us celebrate our respective traditions and religions. It is also a time that we need to reflect on those in our community, city, nation and world who may not be celebrating a joyful season and reach out to them when and if we can do so. Helping those who are in need or are shut-in is perhaps the best gift we can give them. We should be thinking of those still fighting a war in the far away Middle East and being thankful for those returning home. As we gather with our own families this holiday season, let us not forget that there are those folks out there who may not be able to celebrate. They need our thoughts and prayers. A simple smile, “hello” or “can I help you?” goes a long way to show them that someone cares. Let us also pray for all of our City, State and National leaders that they can make sensible and responsible decisions for all of the residents of Norfolk, Virginia and the United States in the coming year.

As indicated in the minutes of our last meeting, Collins Enterprises is seeking our approval for their development project on Newport Ave. at the Riverview Terrace apartment complex. Mr. Collins’ representatives made a presentation about their plans at that meeting. While what they presented was indeed better than his plans several years ago, it was missing a big piece of that development project – the apartment complex. When Mr. Collins met with us several years ago he presented a complex that was to be condominiums. Well, the real estate market went south and he changed his complex from condominiums to apartments without our approval. We clearly voted that we did not want that and while Mr. Collins said one thing he would not commit to any of our recommendations on paper. After several meetings at that time, we were frustrated with his proposals and he with us. Hence he dropped the project at that time and continued to manage the existing apartments.

Now he has come back with a condominium, townhouse, and apartment complex proposal. While it is fairly clear what he will do with the first of those two options he has not presented his plans for the apartments. He has included several complex amenities in this plan which are nice and what we originally wanted. Let me be clear- while this is an improved development proposal, it is by no means ready for our approval. At our last meeting those present raised several concerns about what he plans for the apartment part of the complex which was not clearly outlined at that time.

As a result of those concerns, Martin Thomas Jr. and I met with his local architect Mel Price to discuss our concerns and find out how they plan to address them. It was a good meeting and we were assured that they would be addressed pending Mr. Collins approval. Martin and I also went to the Talbot Park civic league meeting last week and heard the same presentation. That group raised similar concerns to ours at that time.
As it stands right now they will come back to us at the January meeting with a revised plan for us to consider. So that we all understand the process, this development project must be approved by us BEFORE it can go back to the Planning Commission for reconsideration.

Here is what is being considered by the Architect at this time.

• Tie the text amendment to the revised site plan
• Include in the text amendment the following:
  • Phase I of Westport commons will include the first 12 townhomes, clubhouse, swimming pool, pier, tree-lined road to the clubhouse, and parking and infrastructure required to service the Phase I buildings (we will identify these on site plan)
  • The apartments, townhomes, condos will not receive a COA until the following amenities are completed: clubhouse, swimming pool, pierNo vinyl siding will be used on any project on the property (townhomes, condos, or apartments)
  • Identify materials that will be used on the building exteriors
  • Identify traffic-calming bump-outs
• Include the following in the revised site plan and apartment elevations:
  • The design of the parking lot for the apartments will be modified so that the number of parking spaces is maintained, but so that the appearance of one expansive parking lot is diminished by additional landscaping
  • The design of the apartments will be adjusted slightly so as to better address Newport Avenue as its front yard. Some ideas include:
    • Elimination of the brick piers and aluminum fence
    • Addition of features (porches, balconies, or stairs) that enhance the appearance of the apartments (especially the first floor) and make a better connection with the street and enhance the pedestrian experience
    • Modification of the front façade (the above ideas will help) to reduce the “appearance of” the height of the apartment buildings fronting Newport Avenue

My request of you is this. Please read the above proposals and either let me know via email what you think or bring your questions and comments to the January meeting when Collins Enterprises makes its second presentation. In addition please go to WardsCornerNow.com and read more of the entire project. There is a lot of info and pictures about the
planned development of this area for you to see and read.

Please enjoy our newsletter and we hope to see you at the December Civic League meeting.

Finally from my family to yours please have a safe and enjoyable holiday season with the best of wishes for a prosperous New Year.
Thanks

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »