THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300500
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A developer has withdrawn a plan for a pre-release center for 400 inmates in Bowers Hill, citing strong, organized opposition from residents, city officials said Thursday.
Armada Hoffler Hampton II Associates, the landowners, and Dominion Leasing, the developer, will not seek approval of the necessary permit at a Planning Commission meeting Oct. 12, Planning Director Brent Nielson said.
In a letter to Nielson, the project's agent, Walton P. Burkhimer Jr., said: ``Our informal polling of the city's decision-makers indicates that there is irreconcilable opposition to this matter regardless of what additional information might be provided. Therefore, proceeding further would be pointless.''
Residents exulted and said the project never had a chance.
``We were prepared for it, and I think we would have beaten it,'' said Bruce McDaniel of the Sunray Farmers Association. ``Everybody pulled together on it. I never ran into a person who thought this was a good idea.''
The battle may not be over. A Virginia Beach company, Twin Star, has proposed another such facility in Chesapeake, but the company has not yet applied to the city and will not say where its project might go.
The proposed pre-release facility would have been the largest in the state, housing about 400 inmates on 15 acres in the Sunray neighborhood, one of the oldest parts of Chesapeake. The inmates, all non-violent offenders nearing their release, would have taken classes and received job training for up to six months.
Although the inmates would come from state prisons, a private company, Correctional Services Group Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., would have run the halfway house.
But residents were not satisfied. They pointed to the tranquillity of their area and said a suburb was not the right place for an institution like this.
They didn't trust the state or the developer to always keep violent offenders out of the facility. They said they were not convinced that inmates could be rehabilitated, and feared that the project would be a ``revolving door'' that would make their community more dangerous.
Council members have said privately they thought it would be defeated. But since the application was withdrawn and not voted down, it could be re-submitted any time, for that location or another one.
Officials of Dominion Leasing and Correctional Services Group could not be reached for comment.
``Me and my neighbors are going to do some serious looking for orange signs,'' the signs the city uses to announce an application, McDaniel said. ``I suggest everyone else do the same.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color map by Ken Wright, Staff
KEYWORDS: HALFWAY HOUSE by CNB