THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509060152
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The people of the Mill Creek and Elmwood Landing Civic Organization are supporting a voter registration drive Sept. 16 at the Food Lion at Cedar Road Shopping Center. We urge everyone who is not registered to vote to come out and register.
Why? Because Deep Creek needs to have voter clout with Chesapeake City Council.
Those of us who live in Deep Creek are in one of the fastest expanding areas of the city, and the City Council is ignoring our wishes. Our City Council should serve all citizens impartially, but this is never the case. The only parts of the city that get real service are those that can produce a block of votes.
Currently the access to our neighborhood is grossly overcrowded, and I am not speaking only of the Mill Creek/Elmwood Landing subdivisions. Also affected are access to the new areas down Cedar Road. Disaster Evacuation routes mean nothing to us. We probably cannot get out of our subdivisions, let alone to Interstate 64, in the event of a disaster! Our road is too narrow to support the traffic, and additional lanes cannot even be forced because the ditches on Cedar Road are so treacherous that one could lose a car in one and never be seen again!
Our schools, especially the elementary and intermediate schools, are so overcrowded that most of the students are in trailer classrooms. This means that those students have to go out into the weather for lunch, gym and assembly activities. In inclement weather, this means dressing for the occasion - more confusion and disruption for the students and faculty alike.
The Planning Commission and City Council have just approved a 123-unit apartment complex at the entrance to the Mill Creek/Elmwood Landing subdivision. This will produce another 300 cars during rush-hour traffic and approximately the same number of additional children in the schools.
When a delegation of more than 540 folks went to the Planning Commission meeting to explain those facts, they were told that the Planning Commission knew the problems but they had no jurisdiction. In brief, they told us that the state said all plans submitted had to be approved. Why pay for a Planning Commission if they have no power to effect change?
Later, when a delegation of citizens packed council chambers to ask the council to ask for legislation to limit expansion of subdivisions until roads, fire and safety, schools, water and sewerage, etc., were available, the council defeated the measure by one vote. The request for a referendum on adequate public facilities legislation was defeated. Their reason, according to those who voted against it, was that it wouldn't pass the General Assembly even if they did support it. Further, it would keep prospective employers from expanding into Chesapeake. Phooey!
The council has an obligation to support the citizens' viewpoint. The council said they would not support the requested referendum because they knew that the city's residents would approve it overwhelmingly. Does that tell you something about our council and how it views its citizens? A couple of the council members even went so far as to talk down to those present with the admonishment that they know what's best. By extension, citizens are too dumb to know what's best for us!
My point? Well, folks, if our elected council won't support their constituents' requests, why should we continue to pay them for what they don't do for us? How do we get rid of a council that feels its citizens are not smart enough to know what they want or need? We elect someone else! How do we do that? We register to vote. Then, we vote!
Joyce B. Dabbs
Willow Bend Drive by CNB