DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 1997               TAG: 9704150244

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   67 lines

CAHOON DEVELOPERS TRY FOR PLANNED-UNIT ZONE IN CHESAPEAKE

For the second time this year, a city developer wants to rezone his land as a planned-unit development, a zoning designation with strict building and maintenance guidelines.

Proposed as a 472.5 acre residential community built around three golf courses, Cahoon Plantation Estates would need rezoning for land adjacent to the Las Gaviotas community near the intersection of Dominion Boulevard and Cedar Road in Great Bridge.

It goes before the City Council tonight for final approval.

Warrington Hall, the city's first planned-unit development since Riverwalk, was approved this year despite protests from neighbors.

Shortly after Warrington Hall was approved, the developer of Cahoon Plantation withdrew his project's traditional application, saying he wanted to resubmit it as a planned-unit development. The reason was simple.

Because Cahoon Plantation would have severely burdened local schools and roads, it did not meet the city's level-of-service policy under the original plan. That could have forced the City Council to deny the rezoning.

The level-of-service policy states that if improvements to nearby infrastructure aren't scheduled to be made within a year of the first home built, the development should be denied. It's Chesapeake's way of controlling growth while making sure the city serves new residents.

Great Bridge Middle School South, for example, has 1,196 children this school year, but a capacity for only 875. That school, which would serve the Cahoon homes, already exceeds the level-of-service policy that a school can handle no more than 120 percent of its building capacity. Under that policy, the school's limit should be 1,050 students.

The Planning Commission staff's original recommendation to deny the rezoning was based on this reasoning, even though the commission voted for its approval.

Now, if the planned-unit development status is approved, Cahoon Plantation not only can move ahead, but also can do so without having as great an impact as a traditionally zoned development.

One of three planned 18-hole golf courses will be built first. New homes here can't be occupied until after June 1, 2000, about the same time Great Bridge Middle School South is slated for additions.

Improvements to nearby Cedar Road and Dominion Boulevard are scheduled for 1998 or 1999.

Under traditional zoning, the development likely would have been denied without one home being built. If approved, houses would have been built after about 3-4 months, hampering the city's efforts to control growth.

In addition, under the planned-unit development status, a homeowners' association will be created when the first of about 150 single family homes is completed. And after 51 percent of lots are sold, this homeowners' association will take over the review of design features and other matters for the remainder of the community.

Under planned-unit zoning, 30 percent to 40 percent of the development will have to be open space. Under traditional zoning, this would not have been required.

In a traditional development, the city would have had little say in how the development looked or functioned after it was built.

Under the planned-unit status, approval must be sought from the City Council if there are changes in the development's criteria. MEMO: The Chesapeake City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers

in City Hall. Those wishing to speak at any of the scheduled public

hearings must sign up with the city clerk before the meeting begins. For

more information, call 382-6151.

Staff writer Matt Dolan contributed to this report

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu