Fifteen years after Virginia Beach, Va., officials agreed that the city's transportation future was tied to the 66-foot-wide rail path between Norfolk and the resort area, the City Council is poised to buy the right of way, The Virginian-Pilot reports.

After a last-minute snafu over how the corridor can be used - the $20-million state grant specifies that the city pursue light rail as its long-term strategy - lawyers for Norfolk Southern Corp., the state and Virginia Beach have negotiated a deal and set closing for Sept. 24. Now the contract needs the council's approval.

Last year, before a federal appraisal valued the 10.6-mile corridor at $42 million - and before public confidence waned because of the substantial financial problems at Hampton Roads Transit - the council unanimously agreed to spend $10 million of the city's money, along with $20 million from the state and $5 million from HRT, to buy the old rail line for a total of $40 million.

Council members recognized then that owning the straight east-west corridor between Newtown and Birdneck roads would allow the city to chart its future rather than cede it to individual property owners.

Last week, Councilwoman Barbara Henley reminded her colleagues that the city no longer has the option of using the old rail line that ran south to rural Munden Point because the right-of-way had been sold off, piece by piece. The same should never be allowed to happen to the right-of-way between Norfolk and the Oceanfront, she said.

Under the most recent contract, the city will purchase the utility easement for $5 million, which will provide nearly $100,000 a year in rent. That money will be used for transportation projects such as road resurfacing and bridge repair.

Some council members worried that the state's stipulations tie the city to light rail before a study of rail and other transit alternatives is finished in December. They wanted assurance that if the study determines that a dedicated bus line makes more sense than extending Norfolk's light rail line, Virginia Beach could use the right-of-way for buses, for a bike path, or for any other transportation use.

The state grant, a city attorney said, precludes the city from building anything in or along the right-of-way that prevents its eventual use as a rail line. But there's no deadline for building rail; the contract's language allows the city flexibility as it decides its transportation future.

The sliver of land is a critical investment. It starts where the Norfolk Tide ends at Newtown, goes past Town Center, past Hilltop to the resort area.

"It's a spine through the city," Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson noted. "We need this.... It's for our future."