Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 2, 1994 TAG: 9409020059
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Bill "Moose" Matthews, the developer, said work on the 200,000-square-foot store is going "great" and "it's going to look good."
Town officials have said one of their greatest concerns about the project is its appearance.
"We are looking very closely at the landscaping of the site," said Town Manager John Lemley.
Matthews said the town's landscaping requirements will ensure an aesthetically pleasing shopping center.
"Look at everything that's gone on in the strip over there," said Mathews, referring to the Market Place, which he also helped to develop. "They all look good."
The town's guidelines, which also applied to the Market Place development, require that 20 percent of the 27-acre site be devoted to green space and that a tree be planted for every 400 square feet of the green space. That adds up to about 525 trees, Lemley said.
"Everyone involved is concerned about the appearance of the facility," said Jack Via, Planning Commission chairman.
Matthews said in his discussions with local residents, "About all the feedback has been all good."
Speaking to the town's Planning Commission on Wednesday, Lemley said, "So far the site meets pretty much our requirements the way they have proposed it."
But town engineers found about 20 items in the blueprints, ranging from manhole covers to handicapped access to landscaping, that need to be revised.
"The items they came up with are not that significant or hard to do," said Tim Sorey, an engineer with CEI Engineering Associates in Bentonville, Ark., the firm that drew up the plans for the project, submitted to the town Aug. 19.
Sorey said he will resubmit the plans.
The commission voted to recommend that Town Council set a public hearing on the proposal, probably for later this month or October.
Still to be decided is whether the traffic light at Peppers Ferry Road and Marshall Drive by the New River Valley Mall will be moved to Bradley Drive.
"We see some advantages to that," Lemley said. But he added, "We do see some concerns about traffic entering and exiting there without a signal."
Sorey said Bradley Drive will be the truck entrance for the site.
Lemley said "the site does work access-wise without it" and the plan "is not contingent on relocation of that signal."
However, a draft traffic study of the proposal recommends moving the light.
In response to a question from Tom Sheets, New River Valley Mall manager, Lemley said adding a light at Bradley Drive and retaining the light already at Marshall Drive is not an option because traffic engineers could not synchronize those two lights with the light at U.S. 460.
Traffic consultants estimate the project may attract as many as 14,000 vehicles a day.
"Obviously it's going to bring more traffic, but 114 will be prepared for more," Matthews said, referring to plans to widen the road before the turn of the century.
Working with Christiansburg officials has been smooth, Sorey and Matthews said.
"They're very much up to date on modern planning, and they've got good guidelines to go on," Matthews said.
by CNB