THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 17, 1994 TAG: 9411170519
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Resisting a proposed 272-unit apartment complex, about 600 Western Branch residents vowed at a meeting Wednesday night to vigorously protest further crowding of their community.
Some even offered to begin pooling their money to buy the land from the developers.
The residents, meeting for the third time this month, complained that the influx of new tenants on the 17-acre site off Bruce Road would burden the area's schools, water supply, public facilities and already congested roads.
Some residents also declared that the project, which calls for some low-income units, would reduce their property values.
``I'm not against the growth. I'm not against progress. But it has to be responsible growth, and I don't call this responsible,'' said Margaret Steen, leader of Concerned Citizens of Western Branch, a community group formed over the issue.
But the site was zoned 24 years ago for multifamily dwellings, and the city has no authority to change that now, Planning Commissioner Sylvia Watson said.
``The way Virginia law is . . . there's nothing we can do,'' Watson said. ``The land has already been zoned. (The developer) has the legal right to build. We have no bargaining chips.''
And in a growing city that has more than 5,000 acres already zoned for future development, more conflicts like the Western Branch one are likely, Watson said.
Even if the odds were against them, residents who came out on a rainy weekday night to fill the auditorium of Western Branch Middle School said they would still turn out in force at next Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting, when the site will be up for a code-compliance review.
Fred Quayle, a resident and lawyer volunteering his services to battle the project, outlined a few potential hurdles for Hampton Roads Affordable Housing Inc., the developer of the site. For example, he said, the project needs a second access road on land that the developers may not be able to purchase.
The developers, who were not at the meeting, said in a letter read aloud by Quayle, that they wanted to alleviate the community's ``unwarranted fears.'' They described the project as upscale, saying that rents would start at $594 for one-bedroom apartments.
Still skeptical of the project, which calls for at least 20 percent subsidized housing, residents speculated that it would be partly funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The developers said they are bound to see the project through unless the site can be bought for $1.7 million. When Quayle read that part of the letter, the audience laughed scoffingly in response.
But the idea of buying the site, discussed almost in jest at first, began to take shape.
In a show of hands, roughly 200 people expressed interest in pooling their money to save the property.
``If just the registered voters alone could donate $1,000, then we could buy it,'' said Laurie Szoke, whose property in the Point Elizabeth subdivision borders the site. ``This (project) undermines our whole tax base out here.''
Another resident, Paul Kabel, had already decided before he left the meeting that he would contribute to buying the land and rally others to do the same.
``If $900 gives you peace of mind, it's worth it to me,'' he said, suggesting that the waterfront property could be used for boat slips and a park. by CNB