Developers propose new scaled-back Stumpy Lake plan

VIRGINIA BEACH

A large development project near Stumpy Lake has resurfaced after being rejected last year as too environmentally destructive.

This time, Tri-City Properties LLC, based in Virginia Beach, is scaling back its project dramatically, according to plans released Tuesday. Instead of filling in 181 acres of forested wetlands as before, the company would use 29.8 acres of wetlands just west of Stumpy Lake, off Centerville Turnpike.

Instead of constructing more than 1,100 homes and condominiums on the site, the company would build about 520 new units, according to the plans.

Tri-City Properties, headed by developer Eddie S. Garcia Sr., has been seeking government approval for the project for years amid opposition and legal challenges from environmental groups.

One lawsuit continues today, five years after it was filed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Citizens for Stumpy Lake.

The two groups worry the project, which covers 431 acres total, would forever alter Stumpy Lake, adjacent marshes, forests and other woodlands that act as a gateway to the undeveloped areas of southern Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

In 2003, Tri-City obtained a state permit for the larger design. At the time, Bob McDonnell, now the Republican candidate for governor, represented the company during public hearings on the project.

Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers rejected those plans, ruling that the benefits of new homes, senior-

citizen housing and commercial space near the Greenbrier business corridor in Chesapeake "do not outweigh the substantial detrimental impacts" of losing so much wetlands, according to a written decision issued in March 2008.

The corps is accepting public comments on the scaled-back proposal for the next 15 days.

"They're essentially starting all over again," said Rick Henderson, a corps official overseeing the project.

Environmentalists said they will ask the corps for a time extension so they can more fully examine the new plans and will request a full scientific study as well as a public hearing.

"We want to see the process handled correctly, especially with this project and its track record," said Joseph Tannery, an attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Virginia.

While the wetland impacts appear to be far less in the new plans, Tannery said, "they still are quite significant - 30 acres in that area is a lot."

Two calls to Tri-City Properties seeking comment about its proposal were not returned Tuesday.

On paper, the new plans show a project that is denser, smaller and pushed slightly west, away from Stumpy Lake and its marshy edges.

The plans depict two new streets into the property off Centerville Turnpike, commercial space at the front of the project and housing units spread between a series of small, man-made lakes to handle runoff and control flooding.

To compensate for the loss of 29.8 acres of nontidal wetlands, Tri-City would create new wetlands on an adjacent parcel it also owns, according to published plans.

What remains unclear is the fate of the state permit. Issued in 2003 after a long battle with environmentalists, the permit is good for 15 years. But it is for a project that would fill in 181 acres of wetlands and sprawl across a much larger area.

Tannery, the environmental lawyer, said it would seem appropriate for the state to throw out the old permit and take up the project again as designed.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com