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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260089
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SOME DISAGREE ABOUT DEVELOPMENT

The town objects to three points contained in the draft plan, which would act as a blueprint for growth in the county over the next five to 10 years:

Plans to provide sewer along the fast-growing and much-fought-over U.S. 460 corridor.

Extending the proposed Hubbard-Southgate connector west from the 460 bypass to serve the Merrimac and Prices Fork areas of the county.

Increased tipping fees at the county's landfill.

Council concurred during a meeting this week that Blacksburg, rather than the county, is better able to provide water and sewer to areas just outside town limits.

Council member Michael Chandler said that he is particularly concerned about the county's plan to extend sewer along the 460 corridor between Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

Blacksburg residents would end up paying for the sewers through taxes, but would gain nothing from the project, Chandler said.

He suggested that Blacksburg invite the county and Christiansburg to a planning summit to discuss future growth in the county, especially the question of who should provide services to unincorporated areas where growth is spilling over the towns' borders.

However, the three jurisdictions reached little more than a stalemate during three such meetings earlier this year after Blacksburg called for joint meetings with the county to discuss the 460 corridor.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Ann Hess and Mayor Roger Hedgepeth have exchanged letters since then, but have yet to settle on when, how, where or why more talks should be held.

"You've given me quite an assignment, but we'll do it," Hedgepeth told Chandler.

Council also opposes providing future access from its proposed Hubbard Street-Southgate Drive-460 connector to Merrimac and Prices Fork communities.

The Board of Supervisors passed a resolution supporting such access, and included the idea in its draft comprehensive plan.

The issue arose last year when Snyder Hunt Corp. proposed Hethwood II, with a road from the bypass into the planned community with no other outlet.

Many county and town residents opposed the road and supported possible routes that would provide more western access, but Blacksburg approved the original Hethwood II plan.

And lastly, in a letter to Hess responding to the county's draft plan, Blacksburg urges the county not to raise landfill tipping fees without prior consultation with the two towns.

Montgomery County approved a first-ever tipping fee to the towns of $15 per ton, taking town officials by surprise as they worked on the 1990-1991 budget.

Council passed a resolution stating that the tipping fee was unfair to Blacksburg residents, who would pay twice for the service - through an added fee to their garbage collection bills, and through property and real estate taxes that go toward the county's upkeep of the landfill. Residents in the unincorporated areas of the county have not been charged an added fee.

In other business Tuesday night, council passed an ordinance authorizing the town's 1990 bond issue for $3.25 million. The money would go toward building the indoor swimming pool on Patrick Henry Drive, an addition to the police station, rescue and fire vehicles, street and storm drainage improvements.