DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080219

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   49 lines

CHESAPEAKE'S GROWTH CURBS DRAW NOTICE

The fastest-growing city in Virginia is attracting attention around the state for its efforts to control urban sprawl.

Chesapeake residents often complain about the problems caused by the city's growth - crowded schools, heavy traffic, the loss of open green spaces.

But residents of other rapidly growing municipalities - including Chesterfield, Fauquier, Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties - are impressed by Chesapeake's growth-management policies. Some are considering implementing similar strategies of their own.

Prince William County could learn a lot from Chesapeake, said Ruth Griggs, a member of a citizens' advisory board to that county's Planning Commission.

That advisory board recently incorporated large sections of Chesapeake's land-use policy ``word for word'' in its recommendation to the Prince William County Planning Commission.

Prince William, a Washington suburb with a population of more than 247,000, faces many of the same growing pains as Chesapeake.

As they begin reviewing their comprehensive plan, Prince William County supervisors have said they are frustrated that Virginia law does not allow them to deny building permits on land that is already zoned for residential use, Griggs said.

So they turned to Chesapeake, which has found a way around that problem.

Chesapeake's level of service policy - which denies rezoning applications in areas that lack adequate schools, sewers and roads to serve them - has been credited with cutting the city's annual growth rate in half.

Before the new standards were implemented in 1995, the city approved 30 to 40 rezoning applications a year. Last year, Chesapeake approved only two rezonings. Chesapeake's annual growth rate has dropped from a booming 4.2 percent in 1994 to roughly 2 percent in 1996, planning director Brent Nielson said.

``We're doing things that haven't been done anywhere else in the state,'' Nielson said.

Griggs agrees.

Chesapeake ``has been particularly progressive in looking into what they can do to limit growth within the confines of Virginia law,'' Griggs said. ``The work they have done has gotten around.''

Word about Chesapeake's innovations has even spread to the Loudoun County town of Purcellville - population 2,500.

``Chesapeake's policy plan offers an interesting approach about how we can scale development'' in urban areas with their ability to provide services, said assistant town manager James Pammel. ``We're trying to learn from the experience of others and be prepared when change does occur.''

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