Hampton Roads Ymca

Norfolk to vote on city's contribution to YMCA

NORFOLK

The City Council will likely agree tonight to spend $925,000 to bring a $10.5 million YMCA to the Park Place neighborhood, a project city leaders say would be the largest investment in that community in decades.

However, the timing of the vote bothers some council members. They haven't received an update on the project in months and are concerned that today's meeting is already packed with issues such as School Board appointments and council ward redistricting.

"We need to be briefed on the subject, and I don't think there's enough time," Councilman Tommy Smigiel said Monday.

Mayor Paul Fraim said a council majority favors the project. The YMCA, with the help of private donors and the city, wants to bring a recreation facility to a community that the private sector alone won't build.

"This is about helping kids in Park Place," he said.

The YMCA, to be built at the corner of 29th and Granby streets near the Virginia Zoo, would be funded in large part by the private sector. The Landmark Foundation, founded by the late Frank Batten, has pledged $4 million to the project. The foundation has donated millions of dollars to nonprofit foundations and educational institutions.

Batten chaired Landmark Communications, predecessor to Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, which publishes The Virginian-Pilot.

In addition, the Hampton Roads Community Foundation has committed $500,000. Chuck Harris, president and CEO of the YMCA of South Hampton Roads, said he expects other donations to follow after the council's approval.

The city's share of the project would come from funds borrowed by the city and appropriated for Park Place in previous fiscal years, according to an email from Assistant City Manager Stanley A. Stein.

The YMCA would contain a 32,000-square-foot recreation facility, a 7,000-square-foot day care center and an outdoor aquatic park.

Harris said the day care center would be operated by Presbyterian Homes and Family Services of Lynchburg. Officials are raising money for an endowment to help pay for day care services.

Harris told the council last year that Frank Batten Jr., chairman and CEO of Landmark Media Enterprises, and his mother, Jane Batten, approached him about the project, saying they wanted to bring first-class recreation and day care to Park Place.

"That's exactly what this project will do," Harris said.

Virginia Beach OKs further talks on YMCA pool | HamptonRoads.com ...

VIRGINIA BEACH

A plan to build a new YMCA with an Olympic-size pool on city land advanced Tuesday night after the City Council voted 6-3 to move forward with negotiations.

The city has offered to give the Y 10 acres valued at $3.1 million to build the estimated $10 million project.

Local gym owners opposed the plan, saying it would hurt their businesses and wouldn't generate tax revenue. The Y is a tax-exempt nonprofit. They also said they would have liked to submit plans for the city to consider in a competitive bid process.

"As citizens against government waste, I don't know why we would just give away a piece of property to a business that's never going to pay a dime in terms of taxes," Ben Venuto, general manager of Onelife Fitness in Norfolk, said before the public hearing. The company has six facilities in Hampton Roads, including one on Princess Anne Road near the site of the proposed new Y.

The vote doesn't mean the Y project will happen.

"We are just at the preliminary stage of, 'Is it feasible?' " said Billy George, the Y's chief financial officer.

The Beach vote came two weeks before the Chesapeake City Council has a public hearing scheduled on the Y's proposal to put an Olympic-size pool adjacent to the Greenbrier Family Y.

The Y plans to partner in the Beach with a local youth swim club called the TIDE Swim Team to build a 50-meter pool with tent-like covering and walls that could be removed in the summer. It would be next to a 45,000-square-foot recreation center with a smaller indoor pool.

The club, which has about 200 members, plans to launch a capital campaign to raise $1.3 million for the pool, said Katy Arris-Wilson, president of the TIDE board of directors. TIDE swimmers currently practice at Beach Y's in Hilltop and at Mount Trashmore.

Mayor Will Sessoms, who voted for the Y project, said it's important for the Beach to get a 50-meter pool to attract swim competitions, adding he doubted the private sector could build one because it's hard to make money on them.

The only 50-meter pools in Hampton Roads belong to the military and universities. In 2010, the military stopped allowing the TIDE to practice at its 50-meter pools, Arris-Wilson said.

The project is proposed near the intersection of Dam Neck and Landstown roads. The Olympic-size pool would be detached from the regular Y facility, George said. While Y members would be entitled to use it, he said it's not clear how often it would it would be open to non-TIDE swimmers.

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