THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 23, 1996 TAG: 9607230233
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 52 lines
A yearlong battle to save a historic site in Great Bridge came to an end Monday. Proponents of preserving the site for posterity lost.
A bulldozer and men with chainsaws began clearing trees from the 3-acre lot, the only undeveloped corner of the busy commercial intersection of Battlefield Boulevard and Cedar Road.
The property is believed to hold the foundation of a pre-Revolutionary War chapel, which is said to have been the headquarters of patriot forces that defeated the British in a strategic battle of the war.
The developer plans to build a bank and a pharmacy there.
An 1850s-era farmhouse on the site already was bulldozed.
Advocates of keeping the site a park had lobbied City Council to stop the development or buy the land. But the property already was zoned for commercial use, so the council could not thwart the construction.
The city offered to buy the site for $1.2 million, but owner Herman A. Hall III rejected the deal. Hall had said he would need a lot of money to reimburse him for the expenses he'd incurred trying to prepare the property for construction.
History buffs staged protests at the site in May, hoping to persuade Hall and City Council to reconsider.
Maria E. Parker, a Great Bridge resident and a co-organizer of a loosely organized group called Friends of the Chapel Green, said they plan to picket again.
``I'm still thinking maybe they'll reconsider about what they're doing,'' she said.
Great Bridge residents also are concerned about what effect the new businesses will have on traffic in the area.
``It's going to be a white elephant,'' Parker said.
Oscar Richardson, president of Colonial Tree Care, the company that's clearing the trees, said the developer is trying to make the property more attractive by keeping some of the original greenery.
``He's doing everything he can to preserve as many trees as possible,'' Richardson said.
The city requires that commercial developers' landscape plans include 5 percent to 10 percent coverage by mature trees.
Trees that were to be cut down were marked with large red X's; trees that were to remain standing, including some old dogwoods, were tied with ribbons.
Richardson, an arborist, is supervising the work to make sure that the trees left are not harmed by construction. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Chris Cowell of Atlantic Coastal Clearing and Grading Inc. helps
clear trees from site at the intersection of Battlefield Boulevard
and Cedar Road in the Great Bridge section of Chesapeake. by CNB