Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270061
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER CHRISTIANSBURG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Businessman Frank Sale and his lawyer, Patrick Moore, raised the issue this week in a public hearing before the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.
The county attorney, however, contends such rules are legal and have many precedents across Virginia.
Later this fall, the supervisors will vote on a zoning ordinance amendment that would create a special "Route 177 Corridor Overlay District" to prepare for a boom in commercial growth expected when Radford Community Hospital moves its operations to land near Interstate 81's exit 109.
The proposed district would include stricter guidelines governing traffic, utility, aesthetic and environmental impacts of new development. It is an outgrowth of the Route 177 Corridor Agreement between Montgomery and Radford. Under that, the county shares 27.5 percent of all local tax revenues generated from the district with the city. The agreement allowed the local governments to avoid an annexation fight.
Sale runs the Radford Auto Auction and other businesses around the I-81 interchange. He and Moore were the lone voices of protest at the Monday public hearing.
Two other people, including a beef-cattle farmer whose family has been in the same area for 200 years, saluted the proposals as necessary if the character of the rural area along Virginia 177 between I-81 and the Radford city line at Rock Road is to change.
"The zoning laws are there for a purpose so it doesn't end up looking like the corridor to Blacksburg," said Sarah Carper, whose family owns a 150-acre farm. She said the U.S. 460 corridor between I-81 and Blacksburg "reminds you of Northern Virginia."
Bob Barbatti, an executive with Radford Community Hospital, also endorsed the zoning changes. Radford Community's move to the corridor, expected to occur in the late 1990s, will represent a $30 million to $50 million investment, he said.
"We would like to see a reasonable interpretation of the zoning laws out there," Barbatti said. "We're looking for it to be protected better than the 460 corridor was."
Sale said he bought hillside property in the corridor with the intent to build a hotel sometime in the future. The zoning amendments would discourage ridgeline development. Sale said it "seems a little harsh" that he will not be able to use his land as he sees fit.
Moore said in order for the overlay zone to be constitutional, the county must explain why landowners there will be treated differently. He cited restrictions on outdoor equipment sales, highway entrance rules and lot sizes that go beyond requirements elsewhere in the county.
Roy Thorpe, Montgomery's county attorney, said the special zoning requirements are based on the anticipation of growth in an area being served with public water and sewer systems and other services not provided across the county. That "allows us to anticipate that the land use could be treated separately," Thorpe said. Such zoning districts are a common land-use tool for local governments in Virginia and are permitted by state law, Thorpe said.
by CNB