DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711070004

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial

                                            LENGTH:   39 lines

CHESAPEAKE PLANNING COMMISSION RARE REMOVAL

After Chesapeake City Council dumped controlled-growth advocate Debbie Ritter from the Planning Commission last week, voters could hardly be reassured that careful growth is of prime importance to council members.

Growth is a red-hot issue in Chesapeake, where schools are crowded, roads are clogged and the local Council of Civic Organizations is circulating a petition calling for a referendum on managing it.

City officials and commission members said the local development community, the Chamber of Commerce and some civic leagues had lobbied hard for Ritter's removal. She had been vice-chair.

Ritter is the first member of the commission not to be reappointed since 1994. Her replacement is Thomas T. Windborne, owner and manager of a local architectural and engineering firm, an organization that presumably favors growth.

The Planning Commission recommends approval or denial of proposed projects or rezonings. City Council, while not bound by the recommendations, seriously considers them.

Ritter was known as a hard-working commissioner and a leading advocate of careful growth. She could be curt, both to citizens and developers. When some Western Branch residents opposed a hotel, Ritter accused them of wanting no growth.

Critics accused her of seeking additional studies that added time and expense for developers and the city.

``I know people thought I asked a lot of tough questions,'' Ritter said. ``I thought I only asked the questions that needed to be asked.''

Public confidence in a planning commission is hardly enhanced when a member is removed for displeasing the development community, though the matter is muddied by the fact she displeased some citizens as well. Still, Ritter sounds like a planning commission member whom a community would want to help it manage growth.

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