Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411230091
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
County Planning Commission members Ed Green and Harry Neumann this week questioned the wisdom of considering the rezoning, because changing the land from agricultural to business zoning will increase its value - and the cost for taxpayers when the state takes the land.
The state Department of Transportation expects to begin right of way acquisition by mid-1996. The $53 million, two-mile link between the Blacksburg and Christiansburg bypasses of U.S. 460 is supposed to be built by the end of the decade, said Dan Brugh, resident highway engineer.
The new highway is designed to speed travel between the towns and Interstate 81 and relieve congestion at the busy intersection of U.S. 460 and Peppers Ferry Road. Another part of the project - not yet funded - will extend the existing bypass another quarter mile from near Hills Department Store on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg to I-81.
"We'd prefer that [Matthews' eight acres] not be sold and developed," Brugh said. "We don't need to buy another building." The state already plans to spend $16 million to buy property for the new highway, which is to intersect with the "smart road" and South Main Street near the Blacksburg Industrial Park.
The county Board of Supervisors is expected to schedule a public hearing on Matthews' request Monday. It then would hold the hearing in late December or January and vote on the rezoning early next year.
Matthews, treasurer of Whitethorne Plantations Inc., was a key figure behind the late-'80s development of the Market Place and the attendant retail boom at U.S. 460 and Peppers Ferry Road. This new rezoning request is for one of the last slivers of the former 230-acre Virginia Tech horticultural farm. The university swapped it with Matthews and Tech benefactor J.D. Nicewonder for land on the New River in 1986. Nicewonder, of Abingdon, is president of Whitethorne Plantations.
Matthews said this week he has a potential buyer for the land and seven acres next door in his company's Arbor View Plantation commercial subdivision. The land he wants rezoned is part of a 40-acre parcel that the state plans to use for an interchange between Alternative 3A and Peppers Ferry Road, behind the newly opened Lowe's home-improvement store.
Matthews cited the state's slow pace as one of the reasons for pursuing the rezoning. "It's been like two years [until land acquisition] for the last six years," Matthews said. "If they're going to build [3A], I wish they'd come and do it."
Later, he suggested the state could either shift the highway corridor to the east - which could imperil the Mid-County Park and planned county recycling center - or step forward and make an offer on his land.
Brugh said he'd discussed the issue with Matthews. "I can see their point," Brugh said. "We'll just have to see how it shakes out."
But, Brugh said, moving the interchange and highway to the east would not be practical because it would cut into the park and a portion of the Mid-County Landfill. Moving the highway to the west wouldn't work either, because that would cut into the Midway Heights neighborhood.
The state is holding a public information meeting Dec. 7 at the Blacksburg Holiday Inn to unveil revised maps of Alternative 3A and the nearby smart road.
by CNB