THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200438
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEFF HOOTEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
When is a ditch really a borrow pit?
When it's nearly two miles long and is growing to 200 feet wide.
City Council on Tuesday night denied permission for just such a project off West Road near the Chesapeake Municipal Airport.
The developer's attorney argued that what he was proposing bore little resemblance to the traditional lake-like borrow pit.
Instead, it was an effort to enlarge and unclog an existing drainage ditch that was dug during the Depression and empties into the Northwest River.
``This is an extension and regrading of a ditch,'' lawyer Richard H. Matthews said.
But the 40 or so nearby residents who turned out in opposition were not convinced. The current ditch is about 6 feet deep and between 30 and 60 feet wide.
``A 200-foot wide ditch is a humdinger,'' said Robert Scott of George Washington Highway in Deep Creek. ``I've seen rivers that weren't that wide.''
City Manager James W. Rein told council that the project required a borrow pit permit because sand would be removed from the area and the entire excavation would involve more than 20 acres.
The Planning Commission had recommended it be approved, but after a parade of citizens testified against the project, council voted 7-1 to deny the pit.
Councilman Robert T. Nance Jr. abstained from the vote, citing a possible conflict of interest. Councilman W. Joe Newman cast the lone vote for the pit, saying he was swayed by area farmers who favored the project. About 25 people came out in support of the pit.
The permit was requested by Caroon Industries Inc., an area developer responsible for the nearby Shillelagh Farms subdivision.
Company President Robert S. Caroon, who owns the 800 acres surrounding the ditch, says that it has become clogged with silt and overgrowth.
``Every time we get a rain, it just about floods me out,'' Caroon said in an interview before the meeting.
But several residents testified that there were no flooding problems there now and that adding up to 50 dump trucks a day on narrow West Road would be dangerous.
``It rained like cats on Saturday,'' said Peter E. O'Connor, who lives on nearby Beatrice Lane. ``It rained like dogs on Sunday. It rained like cats and dogs on Monday.''
And, he said, there was no flooding.
City Engineer Ray Stout had recommended the pit be approved, despite the extra traffic on rural West Road. The city, he said, will eventually need to improve water flow in the area.
``It's a trade-off,'' Stout said before the meeting. ``Mr. Caroon is digging a public drainage facility at no cost to the city, but he's also imposing additional truck traffic on West Road.
``But the city may have been faced with that truck traffic anyway if it improved the ditch as a public project,'' Stout said.
Debbie Sahut, a West Road resident, told council the heavy trucks would destroy the road.
``This pit is not needed,'' she testified. ``It will be an unfenced nuisance. Our lives will be destroyed and . . . the cost of road repair will be greater than the city can afford.''
Stout said that Caroon paid for a drainage study in 1986 - one the city approved - demonstrating the need for the larger ditch.
``If he would have dug it in 1986,'' Stout said, ``it would not have been a borrow pit, it would have only been a ditch. But the 1993 borrow pit ordinance now calls this a borrow pit, which requires a use permit.''
Borrow pits in Chesapeake have caused uproars in recent years, and City Council has opposed most new requests.
That hasn't stopped developers - or council members - from proposing more.
In May, Councilman Nance suggested digging a 1,000-acre hole in the Bowers Hill area to help augment the city's water supply.
Nance said the city could make millions selling sand from the pit and create a giant reservoir for water that could be purified for drinking. The council has not made a decision on Nance's proposal. by CNB