[CPEO-BIF] Zion Church, Portsmouth, Virginia

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Land swap would pave way for Zion's rebirth from ashes

By Dave Forster
The Virginian-Pilot
February 1, 2010

PORTSMOUTH - The city and a church are close to a land-swap deal that 
would give a new home to a congregation displaced by fire, find a use 
for a former Superfund site and open a prime piece of downtown to 
redevelopment.

Under the proposal, the city would get the vacant lot near the corner of 
High and Green streets where Zion Baptist Church stood before a fire 
destroyed it in December 2007.

In exchange, the church would take ownership of land about a mile away, 
south on Effingham Street near the fire station, to build its new 
church. The property is near where the former Washington Park housing 
complex once stood and has been cleaned under the federal Superfund 
program that addresses hazardous waste sites.

...

The new location on Effingham is part of land that had to undergo a 
cleanup because of lead contamination from an old brass and bronze 
foundry. Because of that history, the city could not build housing there.

...

For the entire article, see
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/land-swap-would-pave-way-zions-rebirth

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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