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residents of the proposed development. Based on the staff's
recommendation, in September 1988, the Planning Commission
recommended to the Chesapeake City Council (City Council) that
Lakewood's rezoning application be denied. In October 1988,
however, the City Council approved Lakewood's rezoning
application contingent on certain proffers.
Residents of Chesapeake, Virginia, mounted a petition drive
against the rezoning and, after obtaining the required 15 percent
of voters’ signatures, requested that the City Council repeal the
approved rezoning of Lakewood's Elbow Lake property. The City
Council voted not to repeal the rezoning. On March 7, 1989, a
voter referendum was held on whether or not to rezone the Elbow
Lake property as mandated by the Chesapeake City Charter. The
proposed rezoning was defeated by the voter referendum with over
95-percent voting against rezoning the property for residential
use. The referendum was subsequently upheld by the Virginia
Supreme Court in an opinion filed April 20, 1990, in which the
court found that the referendum provisions of the City Charter
apply to zoning ordinances. R.G. Moore Bldg. Corp. v. Committee,
239 Va. 484, 391 S.E.2d 587 (1990). Lakewood did not make any
subsequent attempts to rezone the Elbow Lake property from the
time of the voter referendum defeating the residential zoning to
the time of trial.
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