Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240170
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
HOUSING-PROJECT ZONING DENIED
The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors has denied a zoning change that would have allowed the Virginia Mountain Housing Authority to provide housing for mentally disabled people in the Cloyd District."This housing project is an experiment," Toby Dawn Caldwell, one of the residents in the area involved, told the board Monday night. "We would like to keep our community as it is."
She said she and other residents of the area near Fairlawn realized that the people being served by the authority deserved housing but that she and others did not want it in their neighborhood. She said the neighborhood in question was "a peaceful little community" of single-family dwellings.
The area, near the intersection of Virginia 600, Belspring Road and U.S. 11 (Lee Highway), is partly zoned R-1 (residential) and partly CM-1 (commercial). The authority wanted a rezoning to R-2 which would have allowed multifamily housing.
About 14 people attended the board meeting Monday night in opposition to the rezoning request. Some also had addressed the county Planning Commission Feb. 3.
The commission had recommended that the board deny the request. The area was initially recommended for commercial zoning, the commission reported, but citizens there wanted to keep the single-family residential nature of the community.
The property on which the authority wanted to convert existing buildings to apartments and build additional units borders a commercial area along U.S. 11, but is surrounded otherwise by long-term development of single-family homes.
The supervisors also denied a request by Roy E. Cook to rezone an area off Virginia 738 (Robinson Tract Road) in the Robinson District from R-1 to CM-1 so he could open a small cabinet shop, sell furniture and cars and open a flea market.
Residents objected that proposed developments could be unsightly.
The supervisors adopted a motion by Bruce Fariss to see if the district Health Department would provide hepatitis B immunizations for county employees to whom the county is required to offer them, or reimburse the county for those who already have gotten them.
Members of the county Sheriff's Department have gotten the immunizations. The county also may offer them to the 269 volunteers in fire departments and rescue squads because they run some risk of being exposed to blood-borne pathogens in emergencies.
County Administrator Joseph Morgan said Pulaski Community Hospital is offering to provide the shots for the volunteers at a cost of $100. The normal cost is closer to $300.
The board also adopted Fariss' motion to put welcome signs on roads coming into the county, possibly using an illustration of the arches outside the county's historic stone courthouse.