THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507070046
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
If your children attend school in a trailer, if you've waited through several light cycles to get through intersections, if you have had to wait for a policeman or ambulance, or if you've noticed that your real estate assessment has skyrocketed, you already know that we have problems managing growth in Chesapeake. Please know that you can help change that.
On Tuesday, the Chesapeake City Council will consider one of the most important issues it has faced since the city was created in 1963: whether to place a referendum on the ballot in November to ask the General Assembly to enact local enabling legislation for Adequate Public Facilities. Since Virginia is governed by Dillon's Rules, local city councils do not have the power to enact such growth management measures. This power must come through the General Assembly.
Why should the referendum be important to you? Our local and state elected officials need to know that you do care about managing growth in the city of Chesapeake.
The city has identified $700 million in existing road needs and $200 million in school needs, which would just meet current demands. That's almost $1 billion, and we are going to have to pay for it. Five new high schools are in various stages of planning, and if the newly opened Oscar Smith High School is any benchmark, that's going to be about $25 million per high school. And don't forget, we also need additional middle and elementary schools.
Recently, I applauded when the council adopted Minimum Levels of Services Standards. For example, no new residential rezonings will be approved if new students from the rezoning would push a school's enrollment to more than 120 percent of rated capacity. This will help ensure that few new residential rezonings will occur.
But here's the scary part: Those minimum level of service standards cannot be applied to the 23,000 existing residentially zoned lots. That means that 23,000 more homes (single family, townhouses, condos and apartments) can be built, and the City Council doesn't even know when or where they will be built. Only the city staff and Planning Commission will review their plans, and state law does not allow them to consider overcrowded roads, school needs, potential water shortages, or quality of life issues at site plan review; only adherence to city codes can be considered. So at this time, the City Council has no tool to control the building; and alone they are powerless in that effort.
Citizens addressed the council regarding the overcrowding in Deep Creek, when plans for 120 new apartments were recently proposed. It was very clear that they wanted to offer these citizens some remedy, but they could not. So, in another area where schools and roads are substandard, the residents will be forced to accommodate more than 900 new residents.
This is not an attempt to shut out business interests. Adequate Public Facilities would give the city a way to control residential growth so that our basic infrastructure can catch up to the existing needs. It would not effect non-residential growth. Business and industrial uses would not follow the same rules. Many who have studied this issue do not believe that business would be hurt by it. This is mandatory in Florida, and I haven't heard about a lack of business there.
As I visited different areas, during my tenure as a Planning Commissioner, I heard one comment voiced in all areas of the city, from all ages, from all races: ``Please don't let us turn into another Virginia Beach.'' Well, fellow citizens, this is your opportunity to help let council know you want them to ask the state legislature for this tool. Let the council members know what you think. If we come and pack the City Council chambers, they will allow us the opportunity to vote on this issue in November. Passing this referendum would send a clear message to our state legislators that Chesapeake wants managed growth.
I urge you to contact your city councilman (their names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers are printed in The Clipper) before Tuesday, attend Tuesday's council meeting and implore them to allow the citizens the opportunity to express their opinion.
Sylvia S. Watson
Western Branch Citizens must speak
Okay all of you 82,000-plus registered voters of Chesapeake - if ever we needed your help, we need it now. We need you to show up at City Council chambers on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
City Council is voting on whether to allow the citizens of Chesapeake a referendum to let our state legislators know how we feel about managed growth. When a vote on a Managed Growth Referendum occurred at the last council session in June, it was a 4 to 4 tie. Council members DeTriquet, Edge, Nance and Krasnoff voted yes, council members Butt, Duda, Newman and Ward voted no. Councilman Allen was not present. All council members, except Ward, voted to continue the issue until the July 11 meeting.
Now why would I need to go to City Council meeting on July 11? As the current president of the Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations, I have a long history of involvement with civic leagues. I originally became involved with our local civic league in 1980 when R.G. Moore, a local developer in Virginia Beach, attempted to put a large development on a very small Elbow Road. Since then, I have tried, like you, to wait patiently on our crowded roads, and have watched while trailer units became more than a temporary dwelling place for our overcrowded school children.
I'd like decent answers to the following questions: Why, after years of growth, do we still have to enter our city on a one-lane Battlefield Boulevard into Great Bridge? Why are they allowing 500 houses to be built on a Level ``F'' Kempsville Road (level F is the worst rating you can have) when Kempsville Road won't be widened for another four to six years? Why are they allowing 1,000 houses and apartments to be built on a Level F Cedar Road (between Dominion Boulevard and George Washington Highway) when no funding exists to widen Cedar Road? Why can't we have decent roads, schools and other facilities, along with nice developments? And how can the City Council plan to budget for our needs when they don't even know when they will have to provide for city services?
Only land owners and developers know when those 23,000 houses/apartments will be built!
Here is why we will become another crowded city like Virginia Beach, unless we all join together and demand a better quality of life for our citizens and push for managed growth: There is a combination of 23,000 houses and apartments that are already zoned residential and can be built at any time. These 23,000 dwelling units will be built without regard to overcrowded roads and schools, and existing communities will not get the services they deserved while the city continues to place its attention on services for new school children and improved roads.
The fact is that we, the citizens, should be allowed to tell our legislators what kind of city we want.
Gene Waters
President
Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations by CNB