NORFOLK
After five years of review, the Army Corps of Engineers has denied a permit for a controversial 420-acre development in Chesapeake near Stumpy Lake, ruling that too much environmental harm would result.
"The benefits to be derived from this project" - known as the Tri-City Properties or Centerville Properties development, consisting of 800 homes, office space and shops - "do not outweigh the substantial detrimental impacts and is contrary to the public interest," Col. Dionysios Anninos wrote in a rejection letter this week to the developer.
Mike Gelardi, vice president of Tri-City Properties LLC, based in Virginia Beach, said Wednesday the development company is disappointed with the decision, frustrated by the lengthy permitting process, and intends to appeal. "We don't see this as killing the project or anything like that," Gelardi said. "We see this as another bump in the road that we need to overcome."
Environmental groups hailed the federal denial with words such as "precedent-setting" and "historic." The advocates said that the Tri-City project would have ruined more than 180 acres of forested wetlands around Stumpy Lake and Gum Swamp - one of the largest single losses of such ecologically important features ever proposed in Virginia.
"This is a major victory for the hundreds of citizens who have worked so hard for so many years to protect these wetlands," said Rob Wise, an attorney representing Citizens for Stumpy Lake, a local conservation group.
The Stumpy Lake group, along with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, sued the state for granting an environmental permit to Tri-City Properties in 2003. The case is pending, having bounced around other courts for years.
As a result of the federal action this week, an attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Joseph Tannery, asked the state Department of Environmental Quality to void the 2003 permit and recommend the developer start over. Bill Hayden, a department spokesman, said the state just received the request Wednesday and has not made any decisions.
The Tri-City project, near the Chesapeake-Virginia Beach border, has been debated and discussed in one form or another for more than 20 years, without resolution.
It has fanned lawsuits and charges of illegal wetlands activity by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And it became a rallying cry for environmentalists in the 1990s, which continues with less aplomb today, as a symbol of suburban sprawl overrunning natural systems in Hampton Roads.
Former state Del. Bob McDonnell, now the Virginia attorney general, represented Tri-City and its president, Eddie S. Garcia Sr., during contentious public hearings in 2003. Garcia has been a powerhouse in Virginia Beach politics and development circles for years, but more recently has retired to Florida.
Planned near the busy Greenbrier commercial corridor in Chesapeake, Tri-City would sit in the swampy recesses between Centerville Turnpike and Elbow Road, just south of Stumpy Lake and along the Virginia Beach line.
To compensate for the loss of 180 acres of wetlands, the developer has pledged to buy and protect about 362 acres next to the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, as well as to conserve 260 acres of wetlands closer to Stumpy Lake.
But in rejecting the permit, the corps said Tri-City did not consider alternative site designs that would ruin fewer wetlands upfront and did not respond to federal requests for additional information on several fronts.
In assessing the environmental value of wetlands near Stumpy Lake, the corps chief in Norfolk said they "support and buffer a unique aquatic habitat and include rare plant and animal species that exist in the Gum Swamp/North Landing River system and the Intracoastal Waterway."
"I have completed my review of your proposal and determined that your project is not in the public interest," Anninos said.
The ruling is not expected to affect the proposed Southeastern Parkway and Greenbelt, a 21-mile divided highway linking Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. The highway would run next to Tri-City. "That was a separate issue independent of the roadway," said Loretta Markham, VDOT's project manager on the Southeastern.
The parkway has long faced an uncertain future because of the heavy toll it would take on wetlands along its alignment, especially near Stumpy Lake.
Staff writer Tom Holden contributed to this report.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Tulloch ditching Stumpy Lake
The term "Tulloch ditching" is being used to describe the practice of digging drainage ditches in wetlands.The objective is to drain the area,so that it will no longer be subject to wetlands regulations,creating potential for alternative uses. During Gilmore's run for governor, he received more than $1.2 million in contributions from development firms, real estate companies and contractors, according to campaign finance reports. It was his second richest source of money, behind Republican Party donations, reports show. One local contributor was developer Eddie S. Garcia Sr., whose Virginia Beach-based companies -- ESG Enterprises and U.S. Technology Trading Corp. -- gave Gilmore $26,000 in 1997, according to reports. Garcia now is ditching nontidal wetlands on more than 500 acres in eastern Chesapeake, where he hopes to build homes. The land, known as Centerville Properties, is just west of Stumpy Lake.
5 years????
The Corps of Engineers made the right decision for the public. However, taking 5 years to make a decision is an outrage. Another example of how the federal regulatory process is broken.
These developers won't be
These developers won't be happy until all the trees are cut down, all the wetlands are gone, animal species become extinct because of lack of habitat & we have no open space at all. I live in an upscale neighborhood in Suffolk where some of the houses are sinking due to the poor soil quality. All the developers care about is making money - they couldn't care less about what happens years down the road. Why not use land from neighborhoods that have been torn down to build new houses on? Why not rebuild or refurbish old shopping centers instead of building new ones on every corner? Maybe just tear down some old, abandoned buildings & houses & plant some trees...
Illegal wetlands activity
Quote (It has fanned lawsuits and charges of illegal wetlands activity by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.) Charges my foot . They are GUILTY.Charges but NO convictions! About 8 years ago Garcia went in a tulloch ditch miles and miles all thru that property along Centerville Turnpike all the way around to Elbow Road next to Stumpy Lake until Army Corps of Engineers found out and made him stop.Did they make him fill back in all those miles of tulloch ditching (illegal by the way!) NO! So all this time that whole swampy area has been draining.Funny how your first article mentioned only the Vice President of the company and not the President?
Go ask him
Go ask Mr. Garcia if he has been caught draining or filling wetlands in the past. Check DEQ and corp records. The VP's approach to journalism is akin to hanging flypaper to catch a fly. Do some work!
Five Years, Five Minutes - Same Findings
Now don't allyaall get too excited. The article has clearly identified the VA AttyGeneral is already involved, seemingly on the side of past and present developers. Since VA is open for business, how dare the ACoE restrict the siting of hundreds of new homes, increasing density on over-stressed roads and schools and restrict the development of needless miles of strip malls and other non-necessities. Oh yea, that's right - The Clean Water Act protects the valued worth of all such property features so common throughout this Commonwealth. Filling here to restore elsewhere does nothing to reduce or prevent flooding upon up and downstream properties. Filling here and restoring elsewhere does nothing to or for the displaced wildlife and protected birds in migration. Wetlands serve vital functions and must be retained, preserved and protected from all manner of human abuse, past and future. The Corps did right. What will Chesapeake, the Commonwealth and the AttyGeneral do now. Remember that cash often speaks louder than citizens and the law.
The Pressure Is Off Now
With the rejection of this multi-use complex south of Stumpy Lake, the additional pressures to improve Elbow Road, cut-thru Lynnhaven Parkway to Centreville, and widen Centerville Turnpike are released.
The fight is far from over
This fight is far from over. The developer simply sees this as "a bump in the road." I hope the citizens remain actively involved in supporting the preservation of these wetlands.
Perhaps this ruling will help in preserving Pleasure House Point, where the Indigo Dunes development project is planned off Shore Drive.
urban sprawl
I commend the Corps of Engineers for making a smart decision. Developers generally could care less about the public interest or the environment.
As a professional engineer I have seen the inner-workings of the land development business first hand and it is stricktly about making money.
Developers are very well connected with the upper echelons of city management, at the expense of the citizens.
Thank you Army Corps and Mr. Harper for writing this story
I live in a neighborhood in Chesapeake where flooding has increased due to unchecked development that has destroyed much of the surrounding wetlands. Chesapeake local government seems to think it's more important for developers to make money.
One more win for the people
The Colonel and the ACOE made an outstanding decision.
All those who've worked so hard to get to this day deserve a huge pat on the back.
The people behind this obnoxious project should explain to their kids & grandkids why real estate speculation to make money at all costs today is more important than their kids/grandkids quality of life later when they become adults.
Or... continue the grand experiment of trying to drive various parts of our environment to the breaking point & beyond to see what happens a generation or two in the future.