BOARD SEES OPEN-SPACE PLANNING DEMONSTRATION

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992                   TAG: 9201170270
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
BOARD SEES OPEN-SPACE PLANNING DEMONSTRATION
Members of the Montgomery County Planning Commission got a glimpse of what open-space planning could do for the county.
And they seemed to like what they saw.
Randi Lemmon, New River Valley Planning District Commission environmental and regional planner, gave an update on the county's open-space plan at Wednesday night's meeting.
He had two maps of a stretch of undeveloped land off Virginia 114. One showed the conventional development method: a long road with houses all along it. The other - the innovative method, as the map was labeled - showed three clustered neighborhoods at one end of the road and open space at the other end, including a forest conservation area and soccer fields.
The new method had 60 percent open space and would cost about half as much as the conventional method, Lemmon said.
The soccer complex could be used for anything, including football or rugby, Lemmon said. And tournaments would be a way to draw money into the community, he added.
The Blacksburg Kiwanis Club had shown interest in the project, said James Moore, a member of the Board of Supervisors and the commission. "It's critical that this is successful because any further development is a disaster."
The New River Valley Planning District Commission was awarded a $35,000 grant by the Virginia Environmental Endowment to complete a study of the county's open spaces and to write a plan for the county.
Lemmon's used the help of an environmental planning class at Virginia Tech to complete the maps.
Lemmon plans to work with two Tech classes this semester in more open-space analysis and designs, he said. One will pick six locations most likely to be developed and redesign them, using the open-space method, he said. The other class will work on getting community support and involvement through informational letters and slide shows, Lemmon said.
"The purpose is to educate everybody," he said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB