Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993 TAG: 9302160260
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
SCHOOL DRIVE TO BE PURCHASED
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the Blacksburg Town Council agreed Monday night that the county should purchase the land needed for a bus-access road to a new Blacksburg elementary school.The county will now negotiate with Michael Kipps to purchase a right of way through his property for a bus driveway from Cambridge Road in the Haymarket Square subdivision into the back of the school property.
In addition, the two governing bodies agreed that the county should also purchase less than an acre of land from Snyder Hunt developing company. That small triangular parcel at the corner of Cambridge Road and Tall Oaks Drive will provide a more direct bus access to the school site, both groups said.
The Board of Supervisors had proposed to acquire Kipps' land by trading him a 50-foot right of way along the western border of the 28-acre school site near Hethwood on Prices Fork Road. But that idea was abandoned after Blacksburg Town Council opposed the plan at a joint meeting last week.
Council said the trade would take some of the land proposed for a park and make it impossible to construct soccer fields on the property, as the town had planned. It also said the proposed road into Kipps' property would be a safety hazard to the school and to the adjacent park.
One of the reasons the supervisors had suggested the swap was that taking the narrow strip of land for the bus access road would have deprived Kipps of a way into the northern side of his property.
The School Board wanted traffic on the bus road limited to buses. The automobile entrance for the new school, which will be built on land just west of the Food Lion near Hethwood, will be located on Prices Fork Road.
But Supervisor Henry Jablonski suggested that it also might be possible to allow access to the Kipps property off the bus access road. The Kipps property is farmland and is being taken into the county's agricultural tax district.
Council members told the supervisors they supported purchasing Kipps' property since they will have final authority over future access roads that Kipps might want for the property.
The Kipps land is currently under lease to county Supervisor Larry Linkous, who also has been granted the opportunity to buy the property should Kipps decide to sell it.
Linkous has abstained from his board's discussions about the property.