Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120337
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Developer William Price, of Price Realty, has asked the town to rezone 17 acres off South Main Street so that the commercial park can grow one building at a time.
His plan for Southpark includes 20 lots - each with an office building - green ways, a bikeway, common open space, and a playground.
"We really haven't changed the plans that much, but it's really a refinement of the plans," Price told the Planning Commission recently.
The site was originally zoned planned commercial several years ago. The changes would allow Price to develop one building at a time according to the market demands, he said, rather than in phases.
The commission members voted to recommend approval of the rezoning and preliminary plat for the commercial subdivision. But their chief concern was that motorists would see a sea of parked cars from South Main Street.
Project engineer Don Rainey, of Rainey Engineering, said that trees and shrubs would be planted as each site is developed.
"There are a lot of built-in safeguards in this plan that you don't have in the rest of town," Rainey told the commissioners.
Town Council has scheduled a public hearing on the proposal tonight at 7:30 in town hall.
As one of those safeguards, the developer has offered to create an Architectural Review Board to review each site plan as submitted. The board will include a member of the Planning Commission, an architect, a landscape architect, and a representative each from Price Realty and from a Southpark property owners association.
The plan says that the new buildings would be "congruent" with designs of buildings at 2727 South Main office park and South Main Commons.
Price has also proffered a 15-foot strip of land along South Main Street to the town as part of Blacksburg's overall landscaping project for the southern entrance to town.
Further, the developer would try to mirror the town's landscaping designs along Southpark Drive.
Robert McDuffie, landscape consultant for the project, said work would begin soon to plant some vegetation to avoid erosion on the steep hill at the site.
Construction to widen South Main Street should be finished in spring when the final coat of asphalt is laid, said Assistant Town Manager Bonnie Svrcek.
by CNB