Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 10, 1991 TAG: 9104100376
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Council voted 4-2 to adopt the 10-year growth strategy, which includes changes made by Councilman Michael Chandler in the text and land-use map.
The Planning Commission last week said the changes were too restrictive and needed more study, and recommended that they be dropped.
But Chandler, defending the additions Tuesday prior to council's vote, said the town has long talked about saving the rural character of Blacksburg and about managing development with open space in mind.
"The proposal, in short, ladies and gentlemen, allows us to walk what we've talked."
Among other things, the amendment states that future growth will be "managed in relation to community goals." It also says that farm land should be preserved and an open-space plan developed by April 1992.
On the land-use map, two areas along Prices Fork Road were changed from medium-density to low-density residential development.
That's where Councilman Waldon Kerns took exception.
He didn't object to the wording changes, he said, but "to change the density on that area now on the map . . . is very arbitrary."
He argued that a previous study on the Prices Fork corridor, later attached to the 1985 Comprehensive Plan, suggested a density of five to six units per acre. Whether that's considered high, medium or low density is unclear, Kerns said.
"I don't want to change the density just out of the clear air," he said.
Kerns was joined by Mayor Roger Hedgepeth in voting against Chandler's changes.
"I cannot vote for changing the land-use map until we have an open-space plan," Hedgepeth said. "We don't have that plan, no matter how much we talk about it tonight."
Chandler said the old Comprehensive Plan was sending a mixed message to the community, and that lowering the density on the map would jibe with the Prices Fork study's recommendation.
He received strong support from Councilwoman Joyce Lewis, who argued that medium density indicates about 10 units per acre. She was concerned, she said, that developers might seize that opportunity if the map weren't changed now.
During a public hearing prior to council's debate, a dozen citizens called on the elected officials to adopt the plan with Chandler's changes.
"If guiding growth in relation to community goals is too restrictive, then we're all sunk," said Ed Wesely, president of the New River Valley Environmental Coalition.
He urged council to save some "green hearts" in town, much as Central Park is the "lungs and green heart" of New York City.
Another speaker, Jack Davis, recalled that 20 years ago, when council set aside land at the end of Turner Street, "I remember that I, and others in the community, thought that was somewhat silly."
The land is now a town park, adjacent to the Community Center on Patrick Henry Drive.
Many of the speakers said they had moved here in the last few years, and the biggest draw was the rural setting, mountain vistas, and lots of open land.
Planning staff has begun preliminary work on developing an open-space plan that could be appended to the 1991 Comprehensive Plan.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 11, 1991./ Clarification
The headline on a story about Blacksburg Town Council passing a comprehensive plan gave the wrong impression that the council had approved an open-space plan. Although the plan that passed contains provisions for preserving open space, town planners are still working on a separate open-space plan.
Memo: CORRECTION