DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997             TAG: 9704160472

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   40 lines

LUXURY HOMES IN SUFFOLK GET PLANNING BOARD'S OK

Despite concern that a development of 90 luxury homes would clog traffic on rural, two-lane roads, the Planning Commission on Tuesday approved re-zoning 64 acres on Sleepy Hole Road, near Kings Highway.

The application calls for 30 fewer homes in Nansemond Pointe than previously planned. Approved 9-3 by the commission, the proposal will go before the City Council in May for final action.

Commission Vice Chairman E. Dana Dickens III said he liked the project because it is a change from recent developments of low-income and moderate-income housing.

Homes in the Nansemond River-side development would cost from $250,000 to more than $1 million.

``This is the type of subdivision we need in the city,'' Dickens said.

The project is the first in Suffolk for which developers agreed to pay proffers. The $1,500 per house, totaling $135,000 for the city, would offset costs of school expansions and city infrastructure improvements.

The developer also agreed to provide sewerage and water lines to the site and place 27 acres in a conservation easement.

The project is planned for a plot on the north and south sides of Sleepy Hole Road, bordered by the Hidden Cove and Sleepy Point Estates subdivisions.

The prospect of more development in their rural enclave, accessible only by two-lane roads, irked a handful of neighbors who showed up at Tuesday afternoon's meeting. ``We're trying to control the growth in our area,'' Sleepy Pointe Way resident Clyde L. Patterson said. ``It's beautiful out there now.''

Planning commissioner E. Brian Pritchard opposed the plan because he said it would damage a rural quality of life. ``We're losing that in this end of Suffolk,'' he said.

An earlier proposal, which called for 120 homes, was rejected by the planning commission in December 1996, said Jesse Johnson, attorney for the developer. KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK DEVELOPMENT

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