DATE: Wednesday, October 22, 1997           TAG: 9710220533

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   53 lines

FOR THE THIRD TIME IN FIVE YEARS, CHESAPEAKE OPPOSES PARKWAY BUT COUNCIL SENDS SIGNAL TO BEACH THAT ALL DOORS WERE NOT CLOSED.

The City Council formally opposed the Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt Tuesday, but sent a signal to Virginia Beach that all doors were not closed.

This was the third time in five years that Chesapeake has formally opposed the project, one of Virginia Beach's top priorities. Although the state could still push the road through, it is unlikely to do so without Chesapeake's approval.

The council voted 8-1 against the road project as currently designed. Councilman W. Joe Newman, a staunch opponent, cast the lone vote against the resolution because, he said, it was not strong enough.

The resolution had been amended to say Chesapeake was ``willing to work with Virginia Beach to devise a mutually agreeable alignment that will not adversely affect the citizens'' of Chesapeake.

Newman, who staged a mini-filibuster in opposition, said the changed resolution subverted all past resolutions opposing the road by saying the city was willing to work with Virginia Beach.

Chesapeake has several problems with the proposed road's current alignment, including the amount of wetlands needed to be replaced in Chesapeake, the added traffic the road would add to the Oak Grove Connector, and its impact on Stillwater Farms, a subdivision that would be divided in half by the road.

``I'm scared,'' said Belle Spearman, a resident of Stillwater Farms. ``I'm scared of what's going to happen to my family and to my neighbors, and none of us know where to go. . . We don't know where to turn.''

The Parkway's general alignment - but not the exact route - was known to Chesapeake officials when the subdivision was approved in 1994.

It wasn't until January that city officials became aware of the proposed road's impact on the local homes, said Brent R. Nielson, planning director.

Mayor William E. Ward said he wanted to leave the door open to future negotiations. ``That may take decade upon decade,'' he said, ``but, in my mind, we should not send a message that we are aborting this process.''

Councilman Peter P. Duda agreed, saying he would ``stake my life'' that Stillwater Farms will not be touched.

The $380 million Parkway and Greenbelt is to run from the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway near the east side of Oceana Naval Air Station. It would end at Chesapeake's Oak Grove Connector, which is under construction, and the southern end of Interstate 464.

Virginia Beach sees the road as serving the region's future transportation needs, including the expected personnel boost at Oceana.

Chesapeake sees the road as a Virginia Beach project that would affect Chesapeake property without providing any real economic benefit to the city.

The road could open up vast areas of Chesapeake to development, the kind Chesapeake wants to avoid as it copes with the cost of the city's past record-setting growth. KEYWORDS: SOUTHEASTERN PARKWAY

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