THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020455
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 66 lines
On one side stood Carroll Williamson, a Boston landscape architect who sees himself bringing a different and much-needed type of development to sprawling suburban Chesapeake.
On the other side stood local residents, who don't see any need for this denser development. Suburban Chesapeake is just fine, they say, thank you very much.
A meeting Tuesday night was intended as a coming-together of the two sides after Williamson amended his plans. But after the first two hours of the sometimes hostile meeting, the sides still weren't seeing eye-to-eye.
Williamson, a former Great Bridge resident, wants to bring a planned-unit development to Chesapeake on land long owned by his family. He said he envisions a development that mixes townhouses with $250,000 homes, green space and a commercial center to form a more cohesive and less obtrusive community than the standard development.
Rezoning for the planned-unit development was delayed by the Planning Commission for 30 days last month after residents near the proposed 127-acre Warrington Hall expressed fear that this ``neo-traditional development'' would bring too much city to their suburbs.
The Planning Commission will hear the arguments for and against the plans again at its Aug. 14 meeting.
Although most of the commissioners offered tempered praise for the proposal last month, the rezoning was delayed after local residents said the development off of Kempsville Road would be too dense.
Williamson's plans call for zoning of about four homes per acre; the road is currently zoned for 2.5 homes per acre.
Nearby residents worried that the denser development would create too much traffic on nearby Kempsville and Butt Station roads. They also said that the development's focus didn't fit into the demographics of the region and its transient military population.
``When you say the word `townhouses,' you're saying`shoot-me-in-the-foot-my ,'' said Karen Bruer, a 38-year-old resident of nearby Kemps Crossing who is stationed on the submarine tender L.Y. Spear.
Williamson's amended plans moved office buildings away from Kempsville Road and replaced them with assisted-care living for elderly residents. No building, he promised the crowd of 50 residents and planning commissioners, would be more than two stories high. And rather than 436 units, Williamson has cut it down to 318 units, with more housing for the elderly.
That didn't seem to be enough for nearby residents.
Because the development would have a large amount of housing devoted to the elderly, Williamson argued that the impact on local roads and schools would be minimal. And with his proposed plan, 13 fewer children would move into local schools compared with developing the land using traditional zoning, according to city estimates.
Planned-unit developments, which are also called neo-traditional developments, are at the cutting edge of current planning, attempting to create the scale and utility of a small town within the confines of a development.
Proponents say less emphasis is placed on streets and cars and more emphasis is placed on making the development a community with stores, townhouses, upscale homes, housing for the elderly, green space and sidewalks.
``I think there is an alternative,'' Williamson said. ``People are wanting more of a sense of community.
``If I developed it at the current zoning,'' added Williamson, ``it would still have 279 units.''
Replied a man from the back of the room: ``We'll take it.''
KEYWORDS: HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CHESAPEAKE ZONING by CNB