Ida Gardens rezone

April 21st at 6:30pm. Chesapeake City Council Public Hearing at City Hall building. 306 Cedar Road, Chesapeake, VA  23322. 
There is an application for 809 and 817 Bells Mills Road to be rezoned from a M-1 to R-10. The front section of the parcel can be built on " as right". The second half is the issue. The back part has 1.4 acres of Wetlands.
Our issues:
If this is rezoned, they can built as many houses they can fit as long as they do the wetlands mitigation program. Basically they pay and save wetlands else where in the Viriginia but we need the wetlands to be preserved.  
1. Water goes down hill; Our backyards will become the new wetlands area. When the wetlands are filled in with soil, it only pushes the wetlands to the lower elevations. This will be our backyards! We will lose the use of our backyards and it may lead to our home foundations to start to sink. 
2. Did you know 1 acre of wetlands can hold up to 1 million gallons of water!
3. We already lost 11 acres of heavily wooded area & about 1 acre of wetlands for the 30 new homes in Edwards and Evelyn Estates which is only boarding this property. 
4. These wetlands are valuable natural resources in our area that help prevent flooding while providing a natural water filtration and wildlife ecosystem.
5. According the preliminary plan as of now, they want to build a retention pond at the end of the parcel. This would mean cutting down the trees to create an access road. According to City Engineers, there will not be an emergency overflow. When we have a Nor'Eastern, we could potential be flooded due to the retention pond. The only purpose of this pond is to handle the run off from the home being built from this property. The front will mostly drain in the front but there is a ridge and that will cause it to flow back towards our properties.

I encourage all of you to write your Council members stating your concerns.

We love Chesapeake and would like to see positive growth. We need our Council Members to understand a C-1 zoning would be most appropriate due our circumstances. 

Thank you for your support!