THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100338
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 38 lines
At tonight's meeting, the Planning Commission will consider approving the city's first ``planned-unit development'' community since 1977.
The Warrington Hall project, on Kempsville Road near Butts Station Road, would be set on 127 acres owned for several generations by the family of the principal developer, a landscape architect in Boston.
His plans call for 336 total residences, with 208 single-family homes, 66 townhouses, 62 condominums and 100 units of housing for those 55 years old and over.
Greenbrier was the city's first and largest planned unit development.
In such projects, the city can influence guidelines that set architectural standards and may require amenities such as screened-in porches, street lighting and sidewalks.
Houses are located closer together than in most other types of projects. But Chesapeake requires that 25 percent of planned unit development land be left as open, common space.
If approved, the project would be the first planned-unit development in Chesapeake since River Walk was approved in 1977, city planners said.
The city eliminated zoning for such developments after River Walk was approved, but made them permissible again in 1993.
City planners said Monday that neighbors to the proposed development have indicated they want to speak before the planning commission tonight to ask that townhouses planned near Tallwood Estates be moved. A decision on the development is likely to be delayed as a result, planners said.
The development plan also would preserve a historic home in the middle of the property, said Brent Nielson, chief city planner.
The meeting will be held at 7 tonight in Chesapeake's City Council chambers in City Hall. For more information, call the planning department at 382-6176.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE PLANNING COMMISSION by CNB