ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Two major New River Valley developers have joined forces to play a big part in how Ramble Road and the area behind the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center will change in coming years.
Jeanne Stosser and Georgia Anne Snyder-Falkinham won Blacksburg Town Council approval Tuesday night for a 40-acre development off Ramble Road to include 40 town houses, 120 apartments and five commercial buildings, including a day-care center.
The target market for the development will be professionals who work at the nearby and fast-growing Corporate Research Center, said Chris Hornung, an Anderson & Associates employee who briefed council.
The development combines two similar side-by-side plans by separate developers into one more efficient plan for this largely undeveloped area.
Stosser, a managing member with S&S Construction, said she recently purchased 11 acres adjoining 28 acres held by the Peter C. Snyder Residual Trust, and controlled by developer Snyder-Falkinham. Snyder-Falkinham is also a member of the town Planning Commission, though she abstained from voting on her own proposal when the commission recommended approval of the plan.
Both pieces of land had previously received approval for town-house and commercial development from Blacksburg. The new proposal - called the Knollwood Planned Commercial District by the town - makes a loop road out of two dead ends, shares utility systems and improves the layout of both plans, officials said. Stosser said it was a matter of coming up with something better by joining forces.
The development, which Stosser said should get under way some time this year, is one of the major changes that will be coming to the mixed residential and business district between the Virginia Tech Airport and the South Main Street-U.S. 460 Bypass interchange in south Blacksburg.
The entire look of the area will change in coming years as the state buys up property and begins to build a massive new highway interchange linking the U.S. 460 Bypass, the planned Alternative 3A bypass connector and the future "smart" road.
One plus from Tuesday's approval will be a place for the Rainbow Riders child-care center to move. Snyder-Falkinham's daughter-in-law, Kristi Snyder, took over ownership of the day-care center about a year ago and is facing the prospect of having the new highway coming within a short distance of Rainbow Riders. She's been looking for a site convenient for working parents at the Corporate Research Center, but not too close to a highway. And now she may have found it - in her mother-in-law's new plans across Ramble Road.
The council vote was 6 to 0, with Vice Mayor Ron Rordam abstaining. Rordam said later that he had done business within the past six months with Snyder-Falkinham and wanted to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
In another nearby Ramble Road development, Town Council took a first look Tuesday at developer William Price's plans for 30 town houses and three commercial buildings on an adjacent 4.5 acres to be called Hunter's Crossing at Southpark. The development in the 2100 block of Ramble - directly across from Kraft Drive and a Corporate Research Center entrance - would connect Ramble Road with Southpark Drive beside the existing U.S. Forest Service Ranger Station. Southpark Drive in turn connects to South Main Street. That would improve access to Ramble Road, particularly once the new highway interchange is completed.
Council sent the proposal back to the town Planning Commission, a committee of which will take up the project at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Municipal Building. The full Planning Commission will hold another public hearing on it at 7:30 p.m. March 4.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by staff.by CNB