Subdivision

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. -- The Harpers Ferry Flea Market is going the way of the Ford Drive-In Theater, the former occupant on the same ground. It's going away. The theater occupied the 12-acre tract at the intersection of U.S. 340 and Millville Road from 1950 to 1982. A year later, tables, booths and tents took over the spaces that once held rows of cars facing the big outdoor screen and the Harpers Ferry Flea Market was born, a venture that thrived in the 26 years since. Now the flea market is about to make way for Alstadts Corner, a proposed 55-unit multifamily subdivision.

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. -- A revised draft permit to build the sewer plant for the Coolfont Village subdivision was submitted to the state Department of Environmental Protection by Berkeley Springs Development, a subsidiary of the Carl M. Freeman Cos. Bob Marggraf, Freeman's West Virginia vice president and general manager, said the permit was revised because the plant's design must be built to accommodate all 1,200 homes. "It is not designed to be built in phases," he said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A preliminary hearing for the man charged with kidnapping and fatally stabbing Katherine Nicole Sharp has been rescheduled for Aug. 13, but Berkeley County's prosecuting attorney said Wednesday she doubts the proceeding will go forward. Donald B. Surber Jr., 37, of Winchester, Va., is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of Sharp, who was fatally stabbed during a standoff at her home at 10 Raider Lane in the Ridgefield subdivision near Martinsburg.

More than 100 vendors at an historic Harpers Ferry (W.Va.) Flea Market -- an entrepreneurial icon that has been a way of life for the vendors and their customers for 27 years -- will soon have to find a new place to buy and sell their wares. An unanimous vote Tuesday night by the Jefferson County Planning Commission gives permission to Dr. James Gibson, a Berkeley County dentist, to build a 55-unit multifamily subdivision. Gibson's family has owned the 12-acre tract where the flea market currently sits at the intersection of U.S. 340 and Millville Road since 1942.

Police looking for driver of abandoned pickup INWOOD, W.Va. - Berkeley County Sheriff's Department deputies are looking for the public's help in gathering information about a man who stepped out of a pickup truck and fled on foot along Middleway Pike Saturday morning, according to a press release. Deputy M. Stewart attempted to stop the maroon Chevrolet truck with no tags on Winchester Avenue, the release said. The truck eventually turned onto Middleway Pike and behind a Inwood business, where the driver stepped-out and fled on foot into the Inwood East subdivision, the release said.

How they voted Ronald K. Collins, No Gary Matthews, No Thomas Conlan, No Richard Rauch, No John Jeans, Yes H. Daniel Gantt, Yes Gary Phalen, Yes Ted Bostic, Yes Donald Fox, Yes Eric Goff, Absent MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The Berkeley County Planning Commission Monday night narrowly recommended approval of the third section of Willowbrook subdivision, with at least four commissioners having trouble with the state's definition of "intermittent stream.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- As they considered potential changes to the county's weed-control ordinance Tuesday morning, the Washington County Commissioners heard feedback from people with two very different visions for the future of residential subdivisions. One side values the suburban tradition of neat, weed-free lawns with carpets of 2 1/2-inch grass. The other, promoted by Washington County Soil Conservation District Manager Elmer Weibley, predicts a future in which tall, native grasses are not only permitted, but could be required in parts of new residential subdivisions as an environmental management strategy.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. -- Little more than a dozen people showed up Thursday afternoon for what could be the last public hearing on Berkeley County's long-standing effort to overhaul its rules for new development. "Most of the things that I heard today are technical changes, which would not require another public hearing if changed," Planning Department Director Stefanie Allemong said after the county commission heard comments from six people about the proposed rewriting of the county's subdivision ordinance.

MORGAN COUNTY, W.Va. -- An administration building and two neighboring structures in a southern Morgan County subdivision were destroyed Saturday morning in a fire that brought firefighters from four states to the scene. D.J. Zahnow, captain of the Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Co., estimated it would cost at least $750,000 to replace the buildings and the equipment inside them at 551 Tri Lake Road, which is about 15 miles south of the fire company's station in the Town of Bath.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Panhandle on Tuesday received the first of two approvals it needs to start work on a 26-lot residential subdivision it hopes to build in Martinsburg. The city's Board of Zoning Appeals granted the nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization a special exception to requirements that an existing storm water management pond be expanded. The Martinsburg Planning Commission at 7 p.m. this evening is expected to hold a public hearing for the organization's request to subdivide 6.83 acres to create 26 single-family lots and associated rights of way off West Race and Boston streets.