Posted Date: June 11, 2008
Franklin's Southside Residents Express Concern Over Area’s Redevelopment
Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
For the past decade Franklin, Va., like other Hampton Roads cities, has undertaken an effort to spend millions of dollars to redevelop itself.
Million-dollar plans, which will demolish the old and blighted neighborhoods, replacing them with new infrastructure, buildings for commerce, and housing, city officials hope, will renew the community for current and future generations to live, work and play.
Franklin has appointed a committee to oversee the implementation of its “Master Plan” which includes revitalizing its business district, housing the oldest and more fragile neighborhoods.
But while Franklin’s political and economic leaders are eager to support the development project, in the mostly black southside part of the city, there is more worry than enthusiasm.
Even the city says it is not sure what form of redevelopment efforts will be undertaken in that part of the city.
But, politicians and long time residents of the city’s Southside claim the city wants to raze most of the existing housing in that area, run most of the residents out, and redevelop it for people with higher incomes. Most of the moderate to low income residents who currently live in the area, once displaced by the demolition or seizure of their homes, will not be able to afford to return to a gentrified Southside.
“If you ask African Americans in that community if they want redevelopment, they support the idea,” said Lawyer Artis, a member of the city’s planning commissions who also sits on the redevelopment committee.
”But they fear that the city is hiding a plan to seize their homes, tear them down, run them out, build new upscale homes and create a community they won’t be part of anymore. I think the city has a problem convincing the people of the Southside their community is not going to be destroyed.”
Artis said the planning commission urged Franklin political leaders to undertake a citywide redevelopment effort. The council appointed the redevelopment commission to undertake a master plan for redevelopment a decade ago.
While there are seven people on the committee, chaired by the executive director of the Franklin Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FRHA), Artis said he is the only person who resides in the Southside which sits on that panel. He does not know if his appointment is to provide representation from that community or because he is representing the planning commission’s interest solely.
Greg McLemore, Franklin businessperson who recently lost a bid to sit on council and who lives in the Southside, said that Blacks in the city’s south end, view the city’s plans as a means of removing most of the city’s black population.
“Right now, Franklin is a majority black city (over 55 percent),” said McLemore. “By acquiring all of the land in the south end by imminent domain, tearing down the houses, they can rid this city of a sizable portion of the black community, who will not be able to afford the homes which will replace what is up there now. They are trying to attract a more upscale and white community. All of this is slated to begin in 2020. That is not far away.”
Currently, Councilwoman Rosa M. Lawrence represents Franklin’s mostly black Third Ward, one of three political voting districts in the southern part of Norfolk.
Lawrence, who represents Ward 3, said that she is concerned about how the redevelopment committee was formed and why there aren’t representatives from each of the three wards which make up that section of the city. Lawrence said that some redevelopment has taken place in the city’s Southside over the years.
For instance, the Langston Street Development project, where initial U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds were used to build homes, initially priced at $70,000.
But, according to Thomas Councill, a long time resident of Franklin’s Southside and a leading critic of the city on many issues, officials there raised housing prices to well over $200,000. These units still have not been sold and are currently being vandalized by thieves who break into the homes, strip them of valuable building materials and sell them
On Wilson Street, Lawrence said the city conducted an extensive home refurbishing and upgrade program several years ago and widened streets, installing new infrastructure.
Ray Gallop, 62, operates one of Franklin’s three dry cleaning enterprises on South Street. He is originally from North Carolina, and has been living in Franklin for 12 years. Like a lot of people who live or own businesses in South Franklin, he is not sure what plans the city has to rehabilitate the area.
“I don’t know...I am not sure the city knows what it needs to do,” said Gallop. “I like to see redevelopment which means you repair what you’ve got and make it better. Now development means to come in and take what is there, tear it down and build something that a lot of people who live here now cannot afford.”
About 80 percent of the people who live on the city’s Southside, Lawrence said, rent. She said that most of the people who own rented dwellings don’t’ even live in the community, which may make it easier for them to sell the property to the city that could use the leverage to carry out its plans down the road.
The city has already closed down a public housing community called Suburban, but has not gotten funds to tear it down to make way for a new development
“If redevelopment is to take place 20 years down the road, the current generation of people who own homes will be dead and their children may sell those homes and choose the community,” said Thomas. “The city knows this and they can wait and have the land sold for them for rock bottom prices,
Artis said that residents fear that the city may use its right to “imminent domain” to declare whole blocks of homes as blighted and condemn them.
“They are less afraid of the city coming in and helping them individually, helping them to refurbish and improve their homes. But they are concerned about the city coming in and forcing everybody to sell and pushing them out.”
“Cities have used imminent domain by defining property as blighted as part of their strategies to clear away old communities to make way for new ones,” said Lawyer Artis. “There is no clear definition of what ‘blighted’ is because they have long used it arbitrarily.”
Lawrence said that a lot of views about the city’s redevelopment efforts have been expressed from various segments of the black community, especially during the recent councilmanic elections.
“We are not sure what is going to happen,” said Lawrence, who owns a barbershop she inherited from her father and has operated for 15 years.
“A lot has been said and a lot of people are real nervous about plans that have not been put forth yet. Development will happen. But I think people of the Southside should have a say and should be kept informed.”
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