DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220502

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, staff writer 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   47 lines

SUFFOLK PLANNING BOARD APPROVES 1 DEVELOPMENT, REJECTS ANOTHER

Two major housing developments met different fates Tuesday before the planning commission.

The commission approved a 99-home subdivision, dubbed Woodlake North, that would be built on 64 acres between Nansemond Parkway and Wilroy Road.

But it denied plans for a 155-home development between Bennetts Pasture and Sleepy Hole roads.

Both plans go before City Council for final action.

Woodlake North was recommended by an 11-2 vote, with commissioners Sylvester Jones and Persie Stagg dissenting.

Plans for Woodlake North include an 11-acre park on the development's eastern border. The houses will be similar in design and price to the adjacent Woodlake subdivision, said James R. Bradford, an engineer representing developer William J. Hearring.

The plan was approved despite protests from residents of the Holbrook Arch cul-de-sac, which is scheduled to become a through-road to accommodate the development.

``We're really giving these people a hard time,'' commissioner Melvin Poulson said before approving the plan.

The commissioners unanimously denied a preliminary plan for the Woodlands of Nansemond, a 155-lot subdivision on 146 acres across from Nansemond River High School.

Planning director Paul E. Fisher said the developers failed to deliver results of soil tests and submit revised plans to address traffic flow onto Sleepy Hole Road.

``We think it's a wet site and could cause potential drainage problems,'' Fisher told the commissioners at a work session. The site includes wetlands and several homes around a small lake.

Other commissioners also argued that the development was too dense for the rapidly growing section of northern Suffolk.

``The design criteria really didn't comply,'' said commission chairman Fred R. Bowen Jr.

Gary J. Haste, representing developer Lillel Farms Inc., said the plans were moving along smoothly before Tuesday's vote. Soil and sample tests are being conducted, he said.

The concern about drainage problems is unfounded, he said. ``The area being developed is generally farmland.''

Lillel Farms Inc. would have to wait one year before re-submitting plans for the property.

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