DATE: Wednesday, September 17, 1997         TAG: 9709170464

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   45 lines

DEVELOPERS RESURRECT IDEA OF HOLLYWOOD EAST

Developers wanting to continue the quest to create ``Hollywood East'' in a city best known for its peanuts passed their first hurdle Tuesday.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve new plans for Hillpoint Farms, a development that would bring more than 1,200 ritzy homes to land off Virginia Route 10. There will also be an 18-hole golf course and about 600 apartment and townhouse units in the project.

Developers told planning commissioners that their development plan is ``ten times better than what it was when you approved it a year ago.''

Hillpoint Farms, the development that was to house a high-class movie studio in once-rural Suffolk, has sat in city books for more than a decade after its former owners filed for bankruptcy.

New owners have been working with the city for more than three years to revive the plan. The current development scheme includes 30 acres for a park and school. The city also will have control over how the homes are built.

Roads in the area also will be improved, and developers have agreed to help reimburse the city for the interest it has been paying to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District for extending a sewer line to the site several years ago.

The City Council said last month it would not deal with the new plans until developers paid outstanding real estate taxes that accrued from former owners.

Jerry Bowman, one of the developers of the property, said the nearly $170,000 in back taxes - which was actually owed by former owners - was paid to the city treasurer Tuesday.

In other business, the commission voted unanimously to amend its special corridor overlay district ordinance, a zoning mechanism that controls traffic flow by limiting the number of entrances off main roads and imposes landscape requirements.

Landowners have to leave unused 30 feet of land in the front and 20 feet on the sides and back of their properties. Before, owners had to leave 40 feet of land in the front and 30 feet on the sides and back of their properties.

Next month, the commission will hold another public hearing on adding Town Point Road, College Drive and Harbourview Boulevard - all of which are in the northern end of Suffolk. ILLUSTRATION: TO LEARN MORE

The City Council will hold a public hearing on the plan today at 7

p.m. at 441 Market Street.

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