CNU, task force outline multi-phase accounting of Shoe Lane property acquisitions; outreach, website planned

Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany and researchers from Christopher Newport University (CNU) briefed the Newport News City Council Feb. 25 on the Shoe Lane Task Force’s work documenting property acquisitions tied to the university’s long-term campus expansion and on plans to solicit more community involvement.

The task force, established in 2024 by Mayor Philip Jones and CNU President Bill Kelly, has compiled a parcel-level database and mapping timeline that the presenters said will become an interactive public website. The presenters described phases of acquisition since the 1960s, identified specific instances where the university or its Real Estate Foundation pursued condemnation, and asked residents with family histories tied to Shoe Lane to participate in interviews and the forthcoming online materials.

The update matters because the work centers on the history of land transfers and the displacement of families as the college expanded, and the task force expects to return recommendations to the city once the factual record and community outreach are more complete.

CNU’s Dr. Johnny Finn, an associate professor of geography, said the task force focused its review on campus expansion from the early 1960s through the present and mapped campus growth in several phases. Finn said much campus construction through the 1960s–1980s filled in the boundary of the initial acquisition but that outward expansion picked up in the late 1980s and accelerated in the 2000s and 2010s.

Student researcher Tia Tucker described the spreadsheet she created to track parcel-level data: addresses, transfer dates, previous owners, and recorded sales prices. Tucker said she used the city assessor site and city attorney office records to fill gaps and that the group is still cleaning the dataset. The presenters said most parcels were first acquired by the CNU Real Estate Foundation and later transferred to the university.

The task force reported that CNU’s Board of Visitors passed resolutions in February 2004 and February 2005 that would have allowed eminent domain for a small set of properties. Finn said the board passed resolutions covering seven privately owned parcels in 2004–2005 and that, in at least two cases, civil actions were initiated. Finn read from an attorney general memo the university sought before proceeding, quoting that the AG described the action as “an extraordinary action vis a vis private property rights” and said the AG had “no institutional memory of any college having employed condemnation at least since the 1950s.”

Tucker said the task force found documented court action for two Prince Drew properties: one where a court-assessed payment was later ordered to heirs, and another where civil action was dismissed after the parties reached a sale agreement. The presenters said they have not yet found court records of condemnation proceedings for the other five properties covered by the resolutions and that research is ongoing.

Vice Mayor Bethany said the task force has presented findings to the Uprooted Commission and to the CNU Board of Visitors and that the group intends to hold a public forum once outreach and fact‑finding allow for broader community participation. Bethany and Finn asked families with knowledge or lived experience to contact the task force; the presenters provided an email and phone number for outreach: ShoeLanetaskforce@Gmail.com and (757) 837-2843.

Councilmembers and community representatives urged the task force to move carefully but to be transparent and timely. Councilmember Kelsey Harris said, “We have to tell the truth,” and pressed the presenters to ensure that the record captures how Black families in the neighborhood were affected. Councilman Cleon Long and others reiterated the request that the task force document both the documentary record and personal testimony.

Task force next steps, as described to council, include continued archival research, targeted interviews with former residents and heirs, data cleaning of the parcel database, and publication of an interactive online map and a story map. Tucker said the interactive map will allow visitors to click parcels to see acquisition dates, transfer documents and, where available, oral-history materials; she said the beta interactive map and a QR code were shared with council, and that the goal is to publish the interactive map by the end of the spring semester and a narrative story map by late spring or early summer 2025.

The presenters stressed that the task force will only bring recommendations to council; any formal action would be undertaken by the city or by the university as appropriate. Councilmembers said they will make city resources available as needed and that the website could serve as a public repository for documents and testimony.