THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090620
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
A developer whose plans to widen a city-owned drainage ditch were shot down in July has filed a $1.2 million lawsuit against the city.
Robert S. Caroon, president of Caroon Industries, claims in the suit that flooding from the city's clogged ditch has damaged his property, 800 undeveloped acres off West Road near the Chesapeake Airport.
Caroon sparked controversy earlier this year when he proposed widening the 2-mile-long ditch. He offered to fund the project, which would provide drainage from an area that includes a subdivision he owns, Shillelagh Farms.
City Manager James W. Rein told the City Council in July that the project required a borrow-pit permit because sand would be removed from more than 20 acres.
The Planning Commission had recommended approving the project, but after residents criticized the project, the council voted 7-1 to deny the permit.
``The City Council arbitrarily disregarded the recommendations of the Planning Commission, the city engineer and all of their staff,'' said Richard Matthews, Caroon's attorney.
``There's no opposition from any of the professionals. . . . If they don't want us to dig this ditch (and) they want to flood our land, they can pay for it.''
Arguing that the project called only for extending and regrading the ditch, Matthews said the developer should not have been required to apply for the borrow-pit permit.
City Engineer Ray Stout said Caroon had paid for a drainage study in 1986 - one the city approved - that demonstrated the need for the larger ditch.
Matthews criticized the council for bowing to protesting neighbors who claimed that trucks hauling sand from the ditch would disrupt traffic on the narrow, rural road.
``If this case is any indiction of what determines zoning decisions, then all we need to do is put a voting machine in the lobby of City Hall and take a tally at the end of the day,'' Matthews said. ``It's solely based on how many people show up in opposition and not what the merits are for the city.''
City Attorney Ronald S. Hallman said Thursday that he was not familiar with the details of the suit, but added, ``Unless we created some extraordinary situation where we're dumping drainage on his property, I don't see any basis for any liability.''
Matthews could not say specifically what damage was caused by the drainage ditch, but he said that the flooding of land, whether it is developed or not, is illegal.
City Councilman W. Joe Newman last summer cast the only vote in favor of the permit to widen the ditch.
``I felt the entire area needed some drainage,'' he said. ``If the airport is going to be expanded, drainage is crucial.''
``Nobody wants a drainage ditch, borrow pit, hole in the ground near them, but the timing (to build it) is better now than later.'' by CNB