Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991 TAG: 9102230071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
During a Thursday night work session, the commission told the planning staff to study how different levels of multifamily development would affect the residential district that straddles North Main Street.
The current proposal would reduce multifamily development from 19 units per acre to zero in most of the district. Many residents have blasted the proposal as unfair, and possibly illegal, because it would decrease the development potential of their property.
The commission members seemed to agree that the ban on multifamily development was too restrictive and that some types of projects - luxury condominiums for retirees, for instance - would benefit downtown.
Chairman William Claus also told the commission members to think about the pros and cons of other points in the proposal, including whether to:
Keep the district as one or break it into three sections with different standards, as the plan calls for.
Include a residentially zoned area at the end of Faculty Street that contains a nine-acre parcel of undeveloped land, commonly known as the Wong property.
Change the density standards for development based on either the number of units per acre or the number of bedrooms per acre.
Hire a consultant to help design a plan for the district.
Commission member Frances Parsons, who also is a member of Town Council, said the town probably doesn't have the money this year for a professional study.
"The budget is going to be very, very tight," she said.
Another commissioner, Georgia Ann Snyder-Falkinham, said the town might end up spending more money fighting a potential lawsuit from a disgruntled property owner than on a consultant.
"We're all laymen sitting around the table trying to decide what's going to look best," she said.
But Commissioner Joseph Jones said town officials have been working on the plan for more than five years and no consultant could understand the problems, issues and emotions as well as the officials and citizens who served as an advisory task force.
Planner Dirk Gersatz said he would draw diagrams of two existing projects, and possibly a third fictional project, as each would look with 19, 15 and 10 units per acre, for the commission to review.
New parking requirements and a landscaping ordinance currently being considered by council may, in effect, lower the number of units a developer can build per acre, he said.
The commission agreed that a "user's guide" checklist for professional office requirements would help developers seeking a special-use permit to convert single-family homes in the district to offices.
The group will likely meet again in mid-March for another work session on the Central Residential District.
by CNB