Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502270023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: CURRENT EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But the prospective developers say what won't be built on the 100-acre plot will be just as important as what will.
Don Wells, owner of the Pargo's restaurants in The Marketplace in Christiansburg and in Roanoke, and Robert Mills, owner of an architectural firm, want to mold a "marriage of the environment to great architecture and community living," Wells said Friday.
This week, they ran preliminary plans by the town's planning staff and some of its officials in the boardroom at the Marriott, where architects and drafters drew up different possibilities for the development. For months, the two have worked with Urban Design Associates, a Pittsburgh-based firm of site planners.
The development, which would be called "Spring Valley," would be located on the old Swanee Hollow Country Club golf course on the northern side of U.S. 460. It would be the first major development in the Toms Creek Basin, 6.2 square miles of mostly farmland that is generally seen as the logical direction for Blacksburg's future residential development.
The land, upon which Wells and Mills hold options is zoned for limited residential use, which permits one building per acre. The developers will ask the town to rezone the tract to planned-development residential later in the year.
"It is a fabulous piece of property," said Wells, a former Blacksburg resident. "The amenities [of the development] will be more of the beauty of the place."
To that end, the developers envision a community of houses, town homes and estate-like homes mixed together, connected by a network of sidewalks and wooden fences, meadows and greenways. "Neo-traditional development," Wells termed the concept.
He described a development that would work with the lay of land, taking advantage of springs and ponds, an abandoned quarry, a cemetery, the ruins of an old house that would be converted to a garden and a meadow down the center of the property that would be left undeveloped so that its view of the mountains and sunset could be preserved.
"Almost half of it will be left in its pristine beauty," Wells said. He wouldn't say how many houses would be built or what their price range would be, and stressed that the project is in the most preliminary stages.
There are worries on the part of the developers. With such a different-style proposal - "this is not your normal subdivision," Wells said - concerns exist about whether the town's overseers and residents will go along with it.
The town's planning staff doesn't expect to receive a firm proposal for at least a month, but has been kept aware of the project.
Adele Schirmer, director of planning and engineering for the town, commended the idea of trying to leave much of the development's land as open space, and said it appears to mesh with the tenets that have been put forth for the Toms Creek Basin as the town has revised its zoning ordinances.
There may be questions with the spacing of the homes, which may be as close as 10 feet, or the design of the roads. Planned-development residential zoning, used in the Hethwood development and considered for the proposed retirement community of Patton's Grant, allows developers flexibility in designing an overall community, but also requires stricter, more detailed plans up front.
Wells said it could be anytime from April to August before formal presentations are made to the Planning Commission, Town Council and public.
by CNB