THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210812
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, staff writer
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 167 lines
Until about a year ago, Colechester Road typified a country lane: barely wide enough for two vehicles, built 30 years ago to accommodate farm traffic.
Then one of the two dozen people who live along the road made a fateful decision that has turned the 1 1/4-mile lane into one of the city's most-often repaired roadways.
The resident, a well-liked farmer who was Virginia Beach's Man of the Year in Agriculture in 1993, decided to dig a 10-acre pond on his property that would one day be stocked with home-grown fish for sale.
Or so he thought.
What began as a simple excavation project has ruined the road, tarnished the farmer's relationship with his neighbors, forced a change in the city code and carved a path to the courthouse. A Circuit Court judge is scheduled to hear arguments today from lawyers representing the farmer, a truck hauling company and the city.
In the middle is Steve Barnes, the farmer whose family has lived in the area since the 17th century, long before Colechester Road existed, long before the city of Virginia Beach incorporated.
On one side are his neighbors, who are fed up with the traffic hazards they have been forced to endure. On another side is the city, which is trying to keep the road safe for drivers.
The constant pressure from tons of sand being carried by eight-ton dump trucks has ripped up Colechester Road.
As the hauling continues, so does the damage.
Almost daily, for nine of the past 12 months, the trucks roll down Colechester Road to McClannan Lane, where they pick up their loads on Barnes' property. The sand is then trucked to the Fleet Combat Training Center at Dam Neck, where it is used to replenish the Navy base's beaches.
City crews have repaired the street on 21 separate occasions over the past year. The road looks like it might be found in the nation's pothole capital - Washington, D.C. - not in the rural area adjacent to the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Neighbors complain about the need to constantly have city crews repairing the road, which blocks their way to and from their homes.
``It's just total destruction,'' said Dolly Mason, co-owner of North Bay Shore Campgrounds at the end of Colechester Road. ``I think most neighborhoods wouldn't allow this.''
The Public Works Department inspects the road weekly, said Arthur Shaw, a department operations engineer.
The city needs to keep the road maintained for the two dozen city residents who live there, ``to make sure the road stays safe and passable,'' Shaw said.
Hauling has been constant for the past year, except for three months in 1996 from April to July when the city imposed an eight-ton limit on Colechester, which temporarily shut down the operation. State law permits the city to stop or restrict work on a roadway for 90 days during the year so repairs can be made. The law hasn't been used in 1997.
Shaw said the city averages two to three visits a month to Colechester except in January this year, when the city repaired the road on five separate occasions. The month's repairs cost the city $10,500.
Overall, the city has spent about $36,000 fixing the road, Shaw estimated.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, he added.
The repairs have taken up so much time that the city will soon have to hire contractors to do the work, which will increase the cost, Shaw said.
``The repairs seem to be getting larger as the road continues to decay,'' he said.
Neighbors are tiring of the constant construction and truck traffic.
Ann Henley, whose family has lived in the area for 250 years and whose father rents his land on Colechester Road to another farmer, used to take daily walks for health reasons.
No more.
Since the dump trucks started rolling down the lane, Henley rarely walks down the roadway.
``I don't walk like I used to because it's not safe,'' Henley said recently as dump trucks rumbled past her one-story brick house.
Henley said she missed church one Sunday because a truck got lodged in the water-filled ditches that run along Colechester, blocking her path as wreckers worked to free the vehicle.
Crumbling asphalt marks some sections of the road that already have been repaired. Sides of the road crumble into the marshy area where shoulders would lie if it were a wider road. Signs alert truck drivers to limit their speed to 15 mph and to pull off to one side for oncoming traffic.
Mason fears her campground will lose business because of the state of the road.
``It's probably going to put us out of business,'' Mason said.
``When a camper comes down that road and sees that road in the condition that it's in with those sand trucks hauling, it's going to frighten them to death,'' she said.
``The city needs to put a sign on the end of the road: `Proceed at your own risk,' '' Mason added.
She's even asked the police to barricade some of the trouble spots.
``The road just won't carry the sand trucks,'' Mason said. ``It's just not suitable for hauling; it has no foundation under it; it's just a thin road poured across the marsh.''
Barnes' attorney, Neil Lowenstein, says his client played by rules that the city decided to change after the fact.
At the time Barnes received permission from the city to dig the hole, farm and fish ponds on agricultural land were largely outside the city's control.
But when the city discovered that Barnes and two other people were digging holes for fish ponds in Virginia Beach and selling the sand, the City Council decided to make sure rules governing large excavations applied to everyone.
The council decided to require anyone digging a hole larger than 337 cubic yards to apply for a hauling permit. The amount equals about 500 tons or 34 to 38 truckloads. The law went into effect in July.
Lowenstein argues that Barnes doesn't need a hauling permit.
Barnes received written permission from the city planning department to do the work on his land, and he received a mining permit from the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy to excavate the area, Lowenstein said.
As his lawyer says, Barnes ``feels very strongly he did everything he was supposed to do at the beginning. . . . he put in a substantial investment to start to build this fish pond.''
City senior attorney L. Steven Emmert said the city passed the hauling-permit ordinance to ensure that the roads being used by trucks excavating materials remain safe.
Barnes is immune from the new rules governing the fish or farm ponds, but not the rule requiring a hauling permit, which governs the use of city streets, Emmert said.
Thompson's Grading Co. Inc. and Barnes applied for the hauling permit earlier this month after Circuit Court Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. ordered them to do so in January.
The city approved the application contingent on Barnes and the hauler agreeing to:
1. Post a $113,400 bond to cover road maintenance for the year that the permit is in effect.
2. Post a $298,000 bond to cover the costs of restoring the road after the hauling stops.
3. Limit the hauling from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
4. Not haul on Sundays and major holidays.
5. Limit the number of trucks per day to a maximum of 60.
6. Not haul when the city is working on the road or when students are being picked up or dropped off by school buses.
The conditions are meant to make the road safer and ensure the road is restored after hauling stops, Emmert said.
Barnes and Thompson's have refused to accept the conditions, which has landed the case back in court today.
The pair's lawyers say they are aware of the road's conditions but say the city bears the responsibility for keeping it up to snuff.
Moody E. ``Sonny'' Stallings Jr., Thompson's lawyer, said the city has refused to maintain the road, allowing it to deteriorate to exaggerate the problem.
``I think the next suit you're going to see is by us to force the city to maintain the road, which they have a legal obligation to do,'' Stallings said.
``Somebody has to maintain that road,'' Stallings said. ``My clients are not hardheaded to the point where they say, `Too bad, city.'
``They realize the trucks damaged the road.''
Stallings said Thompson's and Barnes would be willing to pay for part of the costs of repairing the road, but only at a rate of 14 cents per hauled ton. That rate was in effect for haulers until the city changed the law last year. The city began requiring haulers to secure a permit so that officials could determine whether roads could safely handle the hauling.
Stallings estimated that under the old rate, his client would have to pay the city about $100,000. Under the conditions requested by the city, Barnes could be forced to pay much more.
``Treat us like you've treated everybody else,'' Stallings said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot
Colechester Road residents Dolly Mason, left, and Ann Henley say
dump trucks hauling sand from a neighbor's land are damaging and
dangerous.
Map
Area shown
Colechester Road
KEYWORDS: FISH POND ZONING LAWSUIT VIRGINIA BEACH