Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Planned Unit Development zoning ordinance amendment now goes before the county Board of Supervisors for final approval at 7 p.m. Monday.
Residents of the Murphy and Apperson Park subdivisions - located north and south of Blacksburg High School on the edge of town - plan to make their case again that the new zoning law needs stronger guidelines to protect existing neighborhoods. They're worried that without such an addition, they could have apartment buildings or a commercial development going up within view of their back yards.
"We're obviously disappointed, but that's the way they chose to vote," said George Flick, a spokesman for the residents. "I thought what we proposed was a very reasonable thing."
The Planned Unit Development amendment is a zoning category that allows a developer to mix high- and low-density residential and commercial uses, in a manner similar to Blacksburg's Hethwood community.
Its advantage, from the planner's point of view, is that a developer must lay a detailed plan on the table from the start, rather than applying for piecemeal rezonings.
After receiving a letter from the Murphy and Apperson Park residents and hearing from Flick and two others, the Planning Commission talked over the concerns. Members agreed with county Planning Director Joe Powers that the new ordinance already would require the county to take compatibility with existing neighborhoods into account. They recommended the amendment to the supervisors by an 8-0 vote.
For the residents, taking such proposals on a case-by-case basis is the problem. They would rather have two types of planned unit developments: one for open, undeveloped areas and another for land bordering existing neighborhoods. Without that, the residents say the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors would have too much discretion in what plans to accept for land adjacent to subdivisions.
The county has been studying Planned Unit Developments for much of this decade. It was to have been part of the open-space plan that went down to defeat a year ago. It also is part of the Route 177 Corridor Overlay District, designed to beef up development controls for major growth expected on a now-rural corridor between Interstate 81 and Radford. That district, too, will be on the supervisors' Monday agenda.
When developers announced plans in September for the retirement community, Montgomery accelerated consideration of making the planned-unit rules applicable to the entire county.
by CNB