DATE: Tuesday, August 19, 1997              TAG: 9708190279

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   71 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** A story in Tuesday's Hampton Roads section on a hotel proposal in Chesapeake gave the wrong first name for Walton ``Pete'' Burkhimer Jr. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot, Wednesday, August 20, 1997, page A2. ***************************************************************** DEVELOPER DROPS CONTROVERSIAL HOTEL PROPOSAL IN CHESAPEAKE

A proposed Western Branch hotel that faced neighborhood opposition has been withdrawn from consideration at tonight's City Council meeting.

But the hotel isn't going very far. The developers have indicated they may try to move the project across the street and build it on land already zoned for a hotel.

On Monday, a day before the proposal was scheduled to go before the council, the hotel's developers withdrew their plans, saying the Western Branch community's needs could not be met while still making the hotel profitable.

In the same letter, faxed Monday to Mayor William E. Ward and members of the City Council, the property's agent, William ``Pete'' Burkhimer Jr., said his clients would propose to build the hotel across the street.

``My clients of LTD Management and I are extremely grateful to City Council for its willingness to bring these items back to the August 19, 1997, public hearing, to give the project every possible chance to survive,'' wrote Burkhimer. ``Unfortunately, despite valiant efforts, we simply were unable to reconfigure the project to be significantly more palatable to the community interests and still economically viable.''

The four-story, 82-room Chesapeake Inn, proposed for a spot near the intersection of Portsmouth Boulevard and Interstate 664, was recommended for approval earlier this year by planning officials.

On June 17, however, the City Council voted it down, 5-4, after protests about the hotel's impact on local traffic, safety and parking.

One week later, using a rare request to bring items back for reconsideration, Vice Mayor John W. Butt and council members Dwight Parker and Elizabeth Thornton asked that the item be re-examined. The members then voted to continue the project for 60 days to allow the builder and local residents to work out their differences.

Western Branch civic leagues met with the developer a month ago and proposed suggestions to relieve community concerns. Burkhimer said they included requests for a community meeting room, more parking and road improvements. But he said the developers concluded that such a hotel couldn't make enough money.

``There wasn't any more we could do,'' he said.

Burkhimer said LTD Management Co., the owners and builders of a string of hotels throughout Chesapeake, will propose building the hotel across the street from the failed site on land already zoned for a hotel's use.

This would be the third time this hotel proposal has gone through the city's approval process. The hotel was first proposed in late 1995 near the northeast corner of Gum Road and Portsmouth Boulevard, but the application was withdrawn because of problems with titles to the land.

In other business scheduled tonight, the council will consider a rezoning application for the DeLaura Property on Clearfield Avenue.

The council will be asked to rezone 17 acres of land for up to 320 single-family homes, a site for a new school, a new fire station, and room for a turn-of-the-century home, Chesapeake's first home to be deemed ``historically significant.''

The Planning Commission voted down the DeLaura application last month, saying the development would add additional pressure to overcrowded roads and schools. MEMO: The City Council's meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers

in City Hall. For details, call the City Clerk's office at 382-6151.

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