The City Council voted 7-1 Tuesday night to support demolishing much of Norfolk’s public housing and replacing it with new mixed-income communities.
The effort targets the Tidewater Gardens, Calvert Square and Young Terrace public housing communities, just east of downtown in the area sometimes called St. Paul’s, for redevelopment.
The resolution notes the goals of the city and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority – to redevelop the 200-acre area into a mixed-use development – wouldn’t be possible without demolishing the existing communities. That would happen over a decade or more.
Several residents appeared at the meeting Tuesday to express support for the ideas underlying the effort, while others voiced concerns about how the project will affect the roughly 4,200 people now living in those communities, which date to the 1950s. The 1,700 units represent about half of the city’s public housing.
