Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503270048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will take comments on the S&S Farms sawmill relocation and two other matters beginning at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the county courthouse in Christiansburg. The supervisors also will hear comments on relocating a voting site from Belmont Community Center to Belmont Christian Church.
These hearings are unrelated to the 1995-96 budget and tax-increase proposals. They will be the subject of public hearings at 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Christiansburg High School.
Rob and Bob Styne of S&S Farms operate a sawmill at 2662 Fairview Church Road, at their farm beside Mill Creek. It stands on a hillside about halfway between Riner and Childress in southwestern Montgomery County.
The nine-employee business needs more space for log storage and may expand its operations, according to a report by the county planning department.
S&S Farms has applied for a special-use permit to move the sawmill to a 145-acre tract off Piney Woods Road, beside Juliet Lane. The rural site, about 2 1/2 miles from the current sawmill, now is used to graze cattle. It is about three-quarters of a mile as the crow flies from the new Lucas Estates subdivision.
The Planning Commission is not expected to make a recommendation on the permit until next month, after which the supervisors will have the final say.
The new site sits in an agricultural and forestal district, which is a special land-use classification designed to preserve rural farm and forest land. Sawmills are not listed as a "compatible use" with the districts in the county ordinance. But the supervisors have the power either to allow the sawmill in such a district, or to require the land be removed from the district as a condition for granting the special-use permit.
The subjects of the other public hearings Monday include:
A request by Hough-Nichols Inc. to rezone 22 acres beside Bethel Woods subdivision from agricultural to residential use. This would be to allow the development of the 11-lot Lantern Road subdivision. The area is just south of Interstate 81, near the Virginia 177 interchange and Radford.
Ray Epperly's request to change the residential zoning classification on 4.5 acres in an undeveloped portion of the Old Mill Estates subdivision off Helm Drive and U.S. 11/460 in Elliston. Changing the zoning from the R-2 to R-3 category would allow Epperly to obtain about 12 lots rather than nine, according to the county planning office. Epperly has said he will not allow single-wide trailers in the new portion of the subdivision if the rezoning is approved.
by CNB