Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 29, 1993 TAG: 9309290202
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The agreement would give Boone the right to develop a residential subdivision on 81 acres on the north side of the parkway but would limit development on 215 acres south of the scenic roadway.
The agreement, however, would require future negotiations on the fate of 24 acres most visible from the parkway.
The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for Oct. 12 at 7 p.m.
Negotiations with Boone have been the most vexing part of Roanoke County's pioneering efforts to protect vistas along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Preservationists want Roanoke County to preserve parkway views by limiting development rights on property adjacent to the 27-mile parkway corridor. But some members of the Board of Supervisors say the county cannot take away development rights without compensating landowners.
The controversy has focused on the Beasley property, a southwest county farm that Boone, Boone & Loeb has contracted to buy, subject to getting the land rezoned for residential use.
Boone has sued the county, claiming the right to develop the entire property under an R-1 classification that would allow up to six houses per acre.
Under the compromise, Boone would get the R-1 classification on the north side of the parkway. It was unclear Tuesday if Boone would limit density to 2.5 houses per acre, as Strauss Construction Co. did on an adjoining tract that is not readily visible from the parkway.
The county would rezone the southern portion of the Beasley property from AG-1 to AR, raising the density from 0.6 houses per acre to 1.75.
The agreement means that Boone - for the time being - will focus his development on the north side of the parkway, where public water and sewer services are available.
Still to be settled, however, is the fate of two chunks of the Beasley property that lie directly along the parkway and are most visible from the roadway.
To the north is a 9-acre pasture known as "the knoll," and to the south is a 15-acre field known as "the bowl."
A county committee has recommended limiting Boone to one house every three acres.
But preservationists want to find a way to create a green way along the knoll and bowl by either buying the property outright or encouraging Boone to keep the land open through tax breaks or other incentives.
by CNB