Navy Site Destined to Be New City Park
By JOHN WARREN
By John Warren
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH
On the southernmost edge of the aptly named Marshview property is Virginia Beach as nature intended.
A tributary to Lake Rudee is filled with salt marsh grass. An egret stands on station, a kingfisher and a blue heron fly overhead.
The 82 acres is owned by the Navy, but – after 17 years of stop- and-start negotiations – it’s being conveyed to Virginia Beach to become a park. Its offerings will be comparable to First Landing State Park, city officials said.
“We have lots of areas that offer one or two amenities,” said Shawn Hopson, a recreation specialist for the city’s Parks and Recreation department. “What you’re going to get out of this is all in one location.”
The park would center on a network of multiuse paths – trespassers who use the property for all-terrain vehicles have already blazed trails. A relatively small active-use area could hold picnic shelters, playgrounds, dog parks. The balance of the site, city officials said, is suitable for trails and fishing piers. A couple of overlooks are planned next to the marsh.
The Marshview property is bordered by Birdneck Road and the Salt Marsh Point neighborhood to the west; Norfolk Avenue to the north; the Shadowlawn community to the east and Owls Creek/Lake Rudee to the south. It abuts the 5-acre, city-owned Seatack Park to the southwest.
It was set to become an expansion of the Salt Marsh Point development in the 1980s – space for streets had been cleared, a storm water drainage ditch dug – when the Navy intervened. It bought the property to prevent further encroachment on Oceana Naval Air Station.
Navy jets make their last bank here before their landing approach at Oceana. When they fly over, they fly over in groups of three or four.
The Beach first expressed an interest in Marshview in 1991. Turnovers in Navy command repeatedly slowed the process, parks planner Brian Solis said. One commander would sign off, then another would assume the post and the process would start over.
At the dawn of this decade, acquisition got as far as public forums and the drafting of a lengthy city report.
City Council has agreed to the terms of an exchange. The city will provide the Navy with an easement on 46 acres along the Indian River Road corridor and agree to use the park mostly for passive recreation – no lighted baseball fields or tennis courts, no golf courses, no campgrounds, no marinas, no borrow pit or dredge operations station.
The Navy will transfer the deed to the city within the next two weeks, said Navy public affairs officer Kelley Stirling.
“The conveyance of the Marshview property is a win-win for both the Navy and the city of Virginia Beach,” Stirling said.
Solis said it likely will be at least five years before park development begins, following a fresh wave of community input.
John Warren, (757) 222-5114, john.warren@pilotonline.com
the swap
The 82 acres of land named Marshview in Virginia Beach will now become a park with multiuse paths. For the property, the City Council has agreed to give the Navy an easement of 46 acres along Indian River Road.
Originally published by BY JOHN WARREN.
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