
DATE: Tuesday, April 29, 1997               TAG: 9704290253

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   98 lines

RESIDENTS BRACE FOR LOSS OF RURAL CHARM REMOTE CITY IS FAST BECOMING A SUBURBAN RESIDENT OF HAMPTON ROADS.

It's a typical rural road: Two lanes, bordered by deep ditches and so narrow that it's difficult for cars to stay on their side.

It's curvy, shaded by old trees and lined by open fields, some with horses. It's easy to forget the last time you spotted a traffic light.

But just as you lose yourself in how peaceful and tucked-away Sleepy Hole Road is, you spot them - orange signs announcing ``Zoning change applied for'' and white signs offering this or that property for sale. And the signs announcing new subdivisions: Sleepy Point Estates, Chatham Woods, Nansemond River Estates.

You soon realize that this road is anything but sleepy. Development has found it.

This is what happens when farms are sold, after land is rezoned, when water and sewerage are stretched to new areas. It's increasingly the story of Suffolk as it experiences a transformation from a remote rural city to a suburban resident of Hampton Roads.

``My kids used to be able to play in the front of the yard,'' said Dianne Alexander, who's lived on Sleepy Hole Road for 32 years. ``Now, we make our grandkids play in the back. It's just too dangerous.''

The road, which begins at Nansemond Parkway and ends at Bennetts Pasture Road, has become one of Suffolk's fastest-growing residential corridors. While Nansemond Parkway has become the back route from Portsmouth to downtown Suffolk, Sleepy Hole is used to travel from rural areas like Chuckatuck to downtown Suffolk. The Virginia Department of Transportation is now widening the road from Nansemond Parkway to King's Highway.

Some Sleepy Hole residents never thought they'd see the day. The area was the country. Farms along the road had been held by the same families for decades, and they were perfectly satisfied with their septic tanks and roadside mailboxes shaped like miniature barns.

The only nearby interstate link was the U.S. Route 58 bypass on Wilroy Road, which was closer to downtown. If you didn't live in the area, you just didn't travel Sleepy Hole road.

In the past few years, new subdivisions along the road have brought about 400 homes, and the Planning Commission just endorsed another 65-acre neighborhood of 90 luxury homes. The former Navy Radio Transmitting Facility, which closed years ago, also will be developed. Plans haven't been finalized, but the city hopes to get some of the 597 surplus acres for recreation.

The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission projects the area's population will jump from about 10,600 to 26,000 in 2015.

``I ride through here, and I see heritage and history being lost,'' said Charles Taylor, who has lived in Schooner's Cove - just off Sleepy Hole Road - for 10 years. ``And I just pray that I'll never see any 7-Elevens.''

About 2,200 cars travel the narrow road daily, and the number is expected to increase at least 15 percent per year, according to the Planning Department.

Police reports show that accidents along the road usually involve serious injuries. Some residents sold land for the widening, which began a few weeks ago.

Residents say the area started to change after the city announced plans to build Nansemond River High School on Nansemond Parkway in the late '80s.

Lester Mansfield, who owns farm land next to the school and on Sleepy Hole Road, said his phone began to ring constantly with offers to buy land.

``People were stopping by and calling,'' said Mansfield, 65. ``It worried me to death. My brother and I owned about 290 acres, and we'd already sold 50 for them to build the school.''

Mansfield later sold 90 more acres of his soybean, corn and peanut-producing land. That is the site of the proposed, 171-lot Nansemond River Estates on Sleepy Hole Road. He's now trying to sell another 110 acres.

``You can't stop prosperity,'' Mansfield said. ``Development is coming.''

Vernon C. Jones, 72, recalled that when he first moved into his home at Sleepy Hole Road and Kings Highway, he could go out in his shorts to get his newspaper from the edge of the street.

Now, he said, he must wait for a break in traffic to get to the box. ``You almost have to go out in your neck tie at 6 in the morning.''

He sits by the window of his living room to read, looking out into a yard filled with pink azaleas and pine trees. A wooden figurine of a small boy in overalls hangs from a huge pine tree that Jones planted some 35 years ago.

Jones grew up near his home. His land, too, was once a farm.

``We've gotten used to the traffic and the noise from the cars,'' Jones said. ``In 10 years, they'll be houses on every bit of this land.

``I just hope we don't lose the beautiful trees. That would be a big loss.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Vernon Jones watches cars from his home at Sleepy Hole Road and

Kings Highway. ``We've gotten used to the traffic and the noise . .

. .''

Joe and Dianne Alexander may lose a part of their yard as the state

widens Sleepy Hole Road from Nansemond Parkway to King's Highway.

Map KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK DEVELOPMENT