Harbour View rezone gets second chance
Published 9:18 pm Wednesday, December 20, 2017
The Planning Commission voted 6-1 on Tuesday to recommend approval of a rezoning request for a riverfront parcel to become a residential area in the Harbour View area.
The proposed plan for the parcel is to become 70 detached single-family homes on the 13.73-acre property at 7101 Bridgeway Drive.
During the public hearing, a few residents of Harbour View spoke to the commission. Andrew Sweet, the Harbour View Homeowners Association president, spoke highly of the new plans for the undeveloped area.
“We would like to have your commission endorse this project, because it’s what fits best in our community,” Sweet said.
This wasn’t the first rezoning request the applicants, Richard Bowie and Continental-Lakeview Associates, LLC, had proposed regarding the parcel. In June 2016, the applicants submitted a request to rezone the area and build a combination of townhouses and apartment buildings. The request was withdrawn before they went before the Planning Commission due to tremendous opposition from the homeowners’ association and residents.
During the year following the withdrawn request, the homeowners’ association, the applicants and Terry Peterson Companies, the real estate developers, formed a committee to find a solution that would best fit the community and their needs. The committee in October agreed to the proposal from Terry Peterson Co. for single-family homes that would be a part of the homeowners’ association.
“It’s our belief that the west side of Harbour View should not have apartments on it,” Sweet said. “These 70 lots are the result of, I’m going to say, seven or eight meetings of our committee that we put together.”
The Planning Commission were presented four other requests during the meeting, and they were unanimously approved by the commission. A rezoning request was proposed in Hampton Roads Crossing for a mini-warehouse intended for a self-storage facility.
Three conditional use permits were requested: a permit to grant a banquet hall in downtown Suffolk, a permit to establish a church in Bennett’s Creek Square and a permit to allow outside storage of heavy operating equipment on a property on White Marsh Road.
All of the requests will be considered by City Council at 7 p.m. Jan. 17.