Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411160112
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Lawrence R. Price Jr., owner of Price's Chevron Service, is asking Montgomery County to rezone nearly 12 acres from agricultural to business use. The site on U.S. 460 is one-half mile from the Giles County line on Gap Mountain and nearly three miles north of the Blacksburg line. It is about two miles from a gas station and store on the corner of U.S. 460 and Virginia 42 at Newport.
The county Planning Commission likely will recommend tonight that the Board of Supervisors hold a public hearing on the request in December. The commission meets at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg.
This will be the second time around for Price and his plans to develop a corner of the 116 acres he owns across U.S. 460 from the entrance to the popular, heavily visited Pandapas Pond recreation area.
Price began to store cars on the land in 1986 and applied for a rezoning after being told by the county that he was in violation of the ordinance. In March 1987, the county Board of Supervisors narrowly rejected his request after an outcry from people concerned that a gas station would endanger the area's natural environment. But eight months later, the board unanimously rezoned four acres of the site on the condition that Price only use it to store damaged cars pending their removal to other sites for repairs. Today, the site is barely visible behind a gated driveway.
This new rezoning application would remove that restriction and five others on the use of the property that Price offered the county in 1987. Those include prohibitions against new buildings, signs or commercial transactions on the site. Moreover, Price pledged then to maintain trees and other vegetation to screen the storage yard from view.
A local environmental watchdog group, the New River Valley chapter of the Sierra Club, already has alerted its members to the proposal. Though the group hasn't taken a formal stand yet, Chairwoman Shireen Parsons said Tuesday she would probably be speaking out against it when the public hearing comes around.
David Collins, with the national forest's Blacksburg Ranger District, said the Forest Service would play no role in consideration of the proposal. "As far as what is done or is not done on private property, I would have no comment pro or con," Collins said.
by CNB