Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007280406
SECTION: SMITH MOUNTAIN TIMES PAGE: SMT-8 EDITION: BEDFORD
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
Coach Tommy McCraw has applied to the Bedford County Community Development Department to construct a "Blue Ridge Sports Retreat" on 40 acres of a 390-acre tract south of Huddleston off Virginia 630.
Site plans for the retreat would include seven outdoor tennis courts and indoor courts, two basball fields, a batting cage, a lodge, a swimming pool, a dorm, suites and a conference center.
Common in Florida, sports fantasy camps let customers pay to spend a week hitting serves to their favorite tennis pros and trying to pitch past major-league hitters, Bedford planners say.
Rumors about plans for such a camp in Bedford have been around for a couple of years. The proposal was filed this week.
Landowners in the isolated area near the retreat proposal will have the chance to say what they think about the idea at a compatibility meeting next month.
In other proposals under Bedford County's Land Use Guidance System:
A public hearing is set for Monday on a proposal from Shredded Products Corp. to build a landfill.
Shredded Products requests permission to build an industrial landfill on 180 vacant acres near Virginia 745 and 746. The landfill would be used for non-metal car parts left over from the car-shredding process at the company's Montvale site.
No consensus was reached at a compatibility hearing, and neighbors are organizing to fight the proposal, which scored 76 points out of a possible 200 under LUGS.
Robert Wandrei - who has been through the LUGS procedure twice - wants permission to build an auto-body repair shop on 2 1/2 acres off U.S. 221.
A compatibility meeting will be held on the project Aug. 13 with Wandrei's neighbors.
Wandrei had already had a compatibility meeting, but a new one was set up after a resident near Wandrei's land complained that he was never informed of the project or the meetings about it.
Under LUGS, county officials are required to notify property owners within 1,500 feet of a proposed development about the project and meetings.
Planning officials said a question centered on whether that regulation included residents 1,500 feet from the center of land proposed for development or that distance from the land's boundary line.
Arnold Laughlin wants to change an auto-body shop east of the city of Bedford into a shop selling gifts, crafts and furniture. The 0.6-acre property is seven miles east of Bedford on U.S. 460.
Laughlin's proposal will be considered in a compatibility meeting Aug. 13.
A limited partnership associated with Contel Cellular phone company wants to build a 150-foot-tall telephone communication tower and equipment building on 0.23 of an acre owned by Appalachian Power Co.
A compatibility meeting for neighbors to the proposal - on land off an access road along Virginia 608 in Moneta - is set for Aug. 13.
Resort Properties wants to build a 60-room hotel, a fast-food restaurant and a shopping center on 22 acres near Hales Ford Bridge on Virginia 122.
No consensus was reached at a compatibility meeting with neighbors of the project. At a public hearing Tuesday, neighbors said they opposed the project because it would clog roads near their homes and change their quiet lifestyles. Several lake and Bedford business associations said they supported the project.
The supervisors will act on the plan Aug. 13.
Under LUGS, the Board of Supervisors takes into account the neighbors' reaction when considering a project. Compatibility hearings are part of Bedford County's 10-month-old zoning ordinance, which is the first of its kind in Virginia.
The ordinance allows development proposals to be considered individually. It takes into consideration a point score, which attempts to judge a project's compatibility with the county's comprehensive plan and neighbors' reaction to it. Project scores are not available until a project is advertised for public hearing.
by CNB