BLACKSBURG MAY BE NEAR THOMAS-CONNER SETTLEMENT

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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 4, 1992                   TAG: 9202040210
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
BLACKSBURG MAY BE NEAR THOMAS-CONNER SETTLEMENT
Town Council members may be moving closer to a settlement in the town's legal battle over the Thomas-Conner House property, but they aren't talking about it.
A meeting scheduled for Wednesday is the sixth closed session this year "for consultation with legal counsel concerning actual litigation dealing with a site plan," according to the public notice.
"Obviously these meetings . . . are leading up to something," Mayor Roger Hedgepeth said Monday.
He said council is zeroing in on one of several options to avoid going to court.
"We're quickly getting to the point where there's nothing else to look at," Hedgepeth said.
Property owner Don Irons filed a $1 million suit in U.S. District Court last summer against Blacksburg and four officials. He claimed they violated his constitutional rights when the town rejected his plan for student apartments next to the historic house in downtown.
Irons also is asking the Montgomery County Circuit Court to overrule the Board of Zoning Appeals and allow him to build the apartments.
"All I'd say is the whole thing is in the hands of the two lawyers," said Councilman Waldon Kerns.
William Poff of the Roanoke law firm representing Irons said specific proposals are on the table.
"But I don't want to get that in the press because it might jeopardize the process," Poff said. "We are still discussing the possibility of a settlement."
Last month, Blacksburg filed a motion to dismiss the federal suit, claiming that complex land-use issues should be left to state and local courts.
In court documents filed Jan. 21, Blacksburg cited several instances in which federal courts abstained for that reason.
Further, a state court decision could render the claim of unconstitutionality moot, the court papers said.
Irons, in his state action, claims the zoning board improperly used the issue of aesthetics in a statement of intent in the town's zoning ordinance to deny his site plan.
The town planning department turned down the project on the grounds that it was "not in harmony with surrounding structures."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB