DATE: Thursday, July 10, 1997               TAG: 9707100508

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   53 lines

PANEL IN CHESAPEAKE SAYS ``NO'' TO REZONING FOR DELAURA PROPOSAL

A plan for hundreds of new homes with provisions for a new school, fire station and the city's first ``historically significant'' 19th century house failed to win Planning Commission approval Wednesday night.

The application called for the rezoning of largely agricultural land known as the DeLaura Property to residential in order to build up to 320 single-family homes on 136 acres off Clearfield Avenue.

The site's developer, Centex Homes, dangled incentives like the donation of a two-acre site for a new fire station, a 17-acre site for a new school and five-acre park marked by a historic home dating to 1853.

The commission voted unanimously to deny the DeLaura plan, which would have fronted on Clearfield southeast of Butts Station Road.

Still, the City Council will have the final say. Council members are expected to vote on the application at their Aug. 19 meeting.

Many planning commissioners said the DeLaura development would exacerbate the neighborhood's already overcrowded schools and roads. One area school, Crestwood Middle School, had 984 students in 1996, 117 percent of its capacity.

A critical issue for the commission was the uncertain future of capital projects in the city.

Officials said construction of the proposed fire station, school and park have not been funded in the current capital budget. Even the plan's reservation of a 300-foot right of way would be for a tentative Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt, a project yet to receive City Council endorsement.

The planning staff determined that the new development would not exceed the city's level of service requirements for capacity of schools and roads.

But that didn't satisfy civic leaders like Denise Waters, the vice president of the Clearfield Triangle Civic League.

``This rezoning of DeLaura is not in a vacuum,'' Waters said, adding that the city's level of service policy for schools does not include the additional impact of plans for surrounding developments.

Commission Vice Chairwoman Debbie Ritter had argued that city officials also should have evaluated traffic on Kempsville Road when studying the application's impact.

But the city's public works department stuck by its determination that Clearfield Avenue and Butts Station Road would be the roads directly affected by the DeLaura project and that projected traffic met the city's level of service requirements.

As for the historic home on the DeLaura site, the city's newly created Historic Preservation Commission recommended in May labeling the 19th century house ``significant'' and worthy of preservation, though the preservation's funding was undetermined.

As part of its proposal, Centex Homes had offered to donate the home to the city and move it closer to Clearfield Avenue. KEYWORDS: REZONING CHESAPEAKE PLANNING COMMISSION

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