THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210194
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 46 lines
City officials and links-minded citizens could finally get the golf courses they have long coveted tonight. The price: a few hundred homes at a fairly busy intersection.
Cahoon Plantation, a planned and private 471-acre development/golf course community, is planned for land southeast of Cedar Road and Dominion Boulevard. It goes before the City Council tonight after receiving approval from the Planning Commission.
Cahoon Plantation would not be a public golf course. However, according to a statement made by Vice Mayor John W. Butt last week, the developers would allow the general public to use it.
If the development is approved, at least 54 golf holes are planned near a densely zoned community where a little less than four homes are allowed per one-acre site. The Cahoon site is currently a mix of zoning but includes R-15, under which each home must have at least one acre.
The Planning Commission has approved the development with many stipulations, many of which were made to help control the impact on surrounding roads and communities.
One restriction is that the housing would be phased in over three years and that certificates of occupancy should not exceed 75 housing units for any year. In addition, no home could be occupied until the initial, 18-hole golf course is up and running, which must be one year before improvements are made to nearby Cedar Road.
Cahoon Plantation is one of the largest developments to go through the approval process recently in Chesapeake. It would include a 36-hole ``links'' golf course and an 18-hole ``par 3'' course on about 348 acres adjacent to the Las Gaviotas neighborhood.
City residents have been recently asking for more recreational facilities in the city. However, because of a decrease in growth projections and already high debt, it is no longer an option for the city.
In 1990, the City Council considered buying the Seven Springs Golf Club in Las Gaviotas at the urging of then-Mayor David I. Wynne. At the time, despite the $4 million price tag, a majority on the council disapproved of the deal. MEMO: The Chesapeake City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. in chambers at City
Hall.
KEYWORDS: GOLF COURSE CAHOON PLANTATION