Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 26, 1990 TAG: 9004260448
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
He did that.
Then he built a post-modern glass building with a design the residents didn't like.
County Planning Director Terry Harrington wants to put a stop to what he calls "meaningless" proffers of conditions such as that one.
Although it might seem that "any proffer is better than no proffer," Harrington is asking the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to start looking closer at the conditions that developers agree to when they request a rezoning.
After all, it's the responsibility of the planning staff to enforce those proffers - or to explain to angry residents why they can't.
Until state law was changed in the late 1970s to allow localities to accept proffers, all rezonings in the county were non-conditional.
But now, a developer seeking a rezoning typically will proffer certain conditions - the height or design of a building, for example, or the size of its sign. "That gives the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors more information on which to make a decision," Harrington said.
Conditional rezoning also opens the door for negotiations between developers and nearby residents, said Planning Commission member Donald Witt. A developer who knows that nearby residents don't like his project often will proffer conditions to try to win them over.
There are limits on proffers. They must pertain to the use or development of a site. A developer can't proffer to put up a traffic light at a nearby intersection, donate land for a park or make other off-site improvements. And a developer can't offer a cash payment to the locality.
Proffers also must be voluntary. But in Roanoke County - as in other localities, Harrington said - the Planning Commission often makes it clear that a rezoning request has a better chance of being approved if certain conditions are proffered.
However, he said, developers sometimes make proffers that sound good but are meaningless or can't be enforced.
During a recent hearing on a rezoning request, for example, the Planning Commission rejected a proffer that "Purchasers of lots in the subdivision will be urged to preserve all trees."
In another recent hearing, the Planning Commission was asked to accept a proffer that "Drivers of trucks will not bang their tailgates after dark."
Nearby residents want assurances that development won't have a negative impact on them, Witt said. "But they need to realize: `How do you enforce the doggone things?' "
From now on, the planning staff's reports on rezoning requests will include a review of, and a recommendation on, the legality and enforceability of any proffers.
Proffers can be made orally during a Planning Commission hearing. They have to be in writing when the Board of Supervisors considers the rezoning, usually three weeks later.
Keeping up with proffers isn't easy - as the flap over construction of the "too-tall building" on Virginia 419 has shown.
When that lot was rezoned in 1985, Fralin & Waldron Inc. agreed to develop it in keeping with a site plan that showed a two- or three-story building. The building under construction is four stories when viewed from the highway and five stories when viewed from the Green Valley neighborhood.
The county approved a final site plan last year that showed the taller building. The conditions in the rezoning "just got lost," Harrington explained after neighbors called attention to the problem.
The Board of Supervisors refused to allow the taller building. Fralin & Waldron has filed a lawsuit to try to overturn the board's decision.
by CNB