Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 10, 1994                   TAG: 9412300015
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLANNERS DELAY ACTION ON OLD SOUTHWEST APARTMENTS

That's the message residents of historic city neighborhood brought to the city Planning Commission on Nov. 2, when they won a delay in a landowner's attempt to make her property more suitable for a small apartment complex along Woods and Allison avenues.

"We have an opportunity to enhance Old Southwest, and we have an opportunity to deteriorate it. As long as I'm sitting here, we're not going to do the latter," said Commissioner John Bradshaw as the commission voted to table the application for 30 days.

The commission will revisit Betty F. Trinkle Freeman's plans for the property at its next meeting on Dec. 7.

At issue is less than an acre Freeman owns along the 600 blocks of Woods and Allison avenues. The land is already zoned for apartments. But she wants the end of Woods Avenue, a 170-foot section that passes through lots she owns, closed and deeded to her. The stretch in question is undeveloped and closed by a city barricade.

The additional 8,500 square feet of land would leave it at roughly 40,000 square feet and increase the value of the site. Sixteen apartments - rather than 13 - could be build on it, said LeRoy Worley, a real estate agent who represented Freeman at the commission meeting.

City zoning regulations allow one apartment for every 2,500 square feet. Without the additional land, a developer would be limited to 13 apartments. Freeman wants to sell the land, not develop it herself, Worley said.

Access to the property would come from a cul-de-sac Freeman would build on Allison Avenue. Both streets dead end at the railroad tracks.

The city recommended the commission approve the application because it has no plans to extend the street and the undeveloped properties produce little in taxes.

But six residents of Old Southwest testified against it. One carried a petition signed by 17 property owners in the neighborhood, most of whom were not at the afternoon meeting.

"That block we are talking about is predominantly owner-occupied," said Joy McKenna, a Woods Avenue resident. "By putting in 16 rental units, you're changing the character of that neighborhood."

McKenna and a handful of other homeowners complained that apartments would erode their property value, detract from revitalization efforts, and remove a natural buffer between the community and the railroad tracks.

The buffer absorbs noise from railroad operations and helps keep coal dust out of their neighborhood, they testified.

Petie Cavendish, who lives on Walnut Avenue, noted that both streets are narrow and there is very limited off-street parking. Shortening either would cramp parking space and force drivers to do more jockeying around parked cars, she said.

"It's really a problem and a safety concern. We're going to channel more [cars] down into area like this and bottleneck them. Drive down these streets and see," she said.

Joel Richert argued that the commission couldn't approve the development, because the plan to build a cul-de-sac on Allison Avenue wasn't advertised in advance.