THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, November 10, 1995              TAG: 9511100441
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                            LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines

REZONING FOR TRACK WAS LEGAL, JUDGE RULES AT LEAST FOR NOW, THE RULING ENDS A SUIT FILED BY LOCAL RESIDENTS.

A Suffolk judge ruled late Wednesday that the City Council did nothing wrong in rezoning land for a race track and industrial park near residential areas in both Suffolk and Chesapeake.

For now, the ruling by Suffolk Circuit Court Judge Rodham T. Delk Jr. ends a lawsuit filed by disgruntled residents of both Chesapeake and Suffolk, who claimed the city illegally approved the rezoning.

Nearby residents were concerned about the noise, traffic and intrusion caused by the proposed 684-acre industrial park, located at the intersection of Shoulders Hill Road and Nansemond Parkway.

Delk's ruling paves the way for the Suffolk International Raceway and Northgate Industrial Park to finally be built on a large parcel of farmland in northern Suffolk. However, city officials and the developers said they do not expect to break ground any time soon.

``I'm not surprised,'' Suffolk City Manager Myles E. Standish said of the ruling. ``In my opinion, council was meticulous in how it reviewed the issues as a land-use decision.''

Standish said the city is still marketing the property, but he refused to say anything about negotiations with potential clients.

None of the land has been developed since the industrial park and race track were approved by the City Council in January. City officials said the delay was not caused by the lawsuit.

Gordon B. Tayloe Jr., attorney for the residents, said his clients had yet to decide whether to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

David Walkup, one of the plaintiffs, said they will file an appeal if they can raise enough money to cover the legal fees.

Tayloe had argued that the city illegally approved the rezoning. He said that Suffolk's city code does not permit a race track to be considered a commercial use of the land. He also said Suffolk officials did not give Chesapeake city officials enough notice about a rezoning hearing for the land.

The judge denied all of Tayloe's arguments, saying the city did give proper notice of the rezoning hearing and that the track was a viable commercial use of the land. He also ruled that rezoning the land did not amount to illegal piecemeal zoning.

``For all of the above reasons, I find that the City lawfully rezoned the subject property and granted the conditional use permit,'' the judge wrote in a letter to the attorneys. ``The issues were fairly debatable, and the presumptive validity of the action of the City Council will control.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color map

by CNB