THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200342
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 43 lines
A year after declining to send growth-control legislation to a citywide vote, the City Council tonight will consider the proposed referendum again.
If passed, citizens would vote on whether to restrict growth in Virginia's fastest-growing city until capital projects like roads and schools are adequate enough to handle proposed developments and building permits.
Even if tonight's vote is affirmative, it is the first of many hurdles to getting permission to institute growth controls. Voters would need to approve it at the Nov. 5 election, where it would be offered as a referendum. State legislators then would need to approve it.
Similar proposals have a poor track record in Chesapeake. The council rejected the referendum last year, 5-4, despite impassioned pleas from citizens groups and residents.
In addition, Chesapeake's legislators in Richmond have never supported any growth-control measures. Before last year's vote, Republican state Sen. Frederick M. Quayle said that he would support growth-control legislation if it were overwhelmingly approved in a referendum.
To become law, such a measure would have to get the support of a majority of both houses in the General Assembly. Chesapeake has been turned down in the past when it asked the state to support similar legislation. In Virginia, only the General Assembly can approve changes to a city's local laws.
The vote may have a better chance this year after the recent shake-up in the political makeup of the City Council. The officially nonpartisan council, which was formerly controlled by the Republican majority, is now split along party lines, with four Republicans, four Democrats and a self-proclaimed independent - Councilman Alan P. Krasnoff.
Mayor William E. Ward, Vice Mayor John W. Butt, and Councilmen W. Joe Newman and Peter P. Duda Jr. all voted against the referendum last year. Councilmen Krasnoff, John M. de Triquet and Dalton S. Edge voted in favor of it.
New council members Elizabeth P. Thornton, who campaigned on controlling growth and increasing Chesapeake's quality of life, and Dwight M. Parker, who pledged to listen to citizens first, will be the two deciding votes.
KEYWORDS: REFERENDUM CHESAPEAKE by CNB