THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608211059
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 90 lines
For the second consecutive year, the City Council on Tuesday voted down a referendum on growth control.
The 5-3 vote denied citizens the chance to vote on a Nov. 5 referendum calling for legislation to limit growth if public facilities were deemed inadequate.
Council members Alan P. Krasnoff, John M. de Triquet and Dalton Edge voted to hold the referendum. Vice Mayor John W. Butt, Peter P. Duda Jr., Mayor William E. Ward, W. Joe Newman and Elizabeth P. Thornton voted against the measure.
Democratic Councilman Dwight M. Parker was absent while on vacation in Pennsylvania.
In the end, the vote placed the pleas of citizens who wanted more control over growth behind the desires of Chesapeake's business and real estate community, who said any growth controls would hurt commercial businesses.
The majority of the council agreed with the local business community, saying that enough was being done now in the city to control growth. To do more, council members said, would do more harm that good for the city.
``We've solidly put our foot on the brake,'' Newman said. ``I think it's very dangerous for us to turn the engine off.''
The arguments were many, but they boiled down to two simple and starkly different viewpoints.
Those who favored the referendum argued that Tuesday's vote wasn't about growth control but about letting Chesapeake's residents voice their opinion.
``Search your conscience this evening and search your hearts,'' Ann Tregumbo asked the council before the vote. ``Do you honestly believe in denying citizens their right to vote?''
John Cosgrove, who lost this year's mayoral election to Ward by some 2,000 votes while campaigning on growth control, said citizens are ``concerned that they're sitting in traffic jams on Battlefield Boulevard, on Portsmouth Boulevard.
``We didn't put you in the chairs in City Council because you represent the wisdom of Solomon,'' Cosgrove said. ``We put you in those chairs because you represent the will of the people.''
The local business community, including the Chesapeake division of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, said any growth control would close the door to local businesses as well as those wishing to locate here.
Because growth-control legislation would delay developments if nearby roads, schools, sewer and water lines are deemed inadequate, Chesapeake's business leaders argued that such legislation would in turn diminish the city's labor force and thus hurt commercial businesses as well as builders.
In addition, they argued, housing prices would rise as a result of a decrease in development.
``Economic development in this city will be put at risk,'' said Bill Hallaran, executive director of the local chamber. ``A referendum will create confusion about whether Chesapeake wants businesses to come to Chesapeake.''
If the referendum were held and approved, it would restrict growth in Virginia's fastest-growing city until capital projects like roads and schools are adequate to handle proposed developments and building permits.
Even if the November vote were approved, it would have been the first of many hurdles to getting permission to institute growth controls - including General Assembly approval.
Similar proposals have a poor track record in pro-growth Chesapeake. The council couldn't get over the first hurdle last year, also turning down a move for a referendum. That vote was 5-4 despite impassioned pleas from citizens groups and residents.
Chesapeake's legislators in Richmond have never been successful at getting growth-control measures through the General Assembly.
The city has instituted some growth-control measures, including a 1989 proffer system, which forces developers to pay up to $6,000 per unit to offset their development's impact on nearby roads, schools and sewer lines.
Early last year, the council approved a policy that automatically denies rezonings if nearby roads, sewers and schools are beyond fixed limits or level of service.
Although it is still the fastest-growing city in the state, Chesapeake's growth rate has dropped in recent years.
In 1994, the city issued 2,550 residential permits. That number dropped to 2,075 in 1995, down 19 percent. In the first six months of this year, residential building permits were down 6.6 percent.
De Triquet said measures to curtail growth would better serve citizens in the long run.
``As I really look at it, it is an insurance for the future,'' said de Triquet. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Ann Tregumbo was one resident who supported the referendum: ``Do you
honestly believe in denying citizens their right to vote?''
Bill Hallaran of the local Chamber of Commerce said of the
referendum: ``Economic development . . . will be put at risk.'' by CNB