Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
To residents of the 75-home community of Springtree, that proposed developmental double whammy spells potential crime, truck traffic, pollution and declining property values.
About 25 homeowners of the Northeast Roanoke neighborhood turned out against both proposals at a Roanoke Planning Commission meeting Wednesday.
One is for a 46-unit, federally subsidized low-income apartment complex for senior citizens off King Street on the south side of Orange Avenue; the other is a proposed $3 million asphalt production plant just north of the congested city gateway.
Commissioners deferred action on the proposals at least until next month, saying they needed more information.
Among other things, the homeowners asked the city to make a better effort at notifying citizens of potential development in their neighborhoods.
Residents learned of the apartments, which have been planned for a year, late last week when the city sent six letters to homeowners whose properties adjoin the proposed complex.
At a hastily called meeting to discuss it Tuesday night, they found out about the proposed asphalt plant.
"If you all have to change some kind of ordinance to let people know what's going to be built around them - you know, an asphalt plant, multifamily housing, a low-income project - then something ought to be done," said Pat Carter.
City regulations require only that immediately adjoining landowners to proposed rezonings be notified prior to a public hearing. On projects that meet zoning regulations, no notification is required, but letters often are sent to adjacent property owners, as was done in this case.
The apartment developer is Christian Village of Western Virginia, a not-for-profit consortium of Virginia churches and charities that is seeking to build single-story, one-bedroom apartments on roughly four acres between Springtree and a nearby supermarket.
Leslie Porter, a Winston-Salem, N.C., consultant for Christian Village, said the company has a contract to buy the land from real estate company Fralin & Waldron if it can win development approval.
The apartments would house retirees age 62 and over, most of whom saved little for their later years because they worked at minimum-wage jobs their whole lives. Under a federal program that will finance the development, the tenants' income cannot exceed half of Roanoke's median household income.
"These are people who worked all their lives," Porter said. Most don't own cars, and children are prohibited from living in the apartments, she added.
Because the land is already zoned for apartments, the Planning Commission has a say only over elements of its design such as parking, roadways, landscaping and sidewalks, Commissioner John Bradshaw said.
That wasn't what residents of Springtree, where property values have been increasing 5 to 8 percent annually, wanted to hear.
They worried aloud that the project might be sold in the future and there would be no guarantees seniors would stay there. And a road Christian Village would build could open up an adjacent Fralin & Waldron parcel that also is zoned for apartments, they said.
"I'm very concerned about rental apartments being in my back yard," said Tina Puryear, whose property abuts the proposed development. "I don't know how anybody can tell me that having a rental project in my back yard will increase the value of my home."
"If you want to bring elderly into the community, bring them into single-family" homes, said Fred Bedwell.
The asphalt plant has sparked fears of pollution and increased truck traffic.
Branch Highways of Roanoke is seeking to build a $3 million asphalt plant on 11 acres off Orange Avenue adjacent to Statesmen Industrial Park. But the company needs land rezoned from light manufacturing to heavy manufacturing to accommodate the plant.
The plant would be able to produce 1,200 tons of asphalt a day for Branch, a major Virginia road-building company that now buys the product from suppliers.
Attorney Donald Wetherington, who represented Branch, said the project would create 32 jobs on the vacant parcel and would pay the city about $210,000 annually in property taxes.
Branch President Ralph Shiver said the company would screen the factory with earthen berms and trees. The company would install anti-pollution safeguards that would keep emissions far below state and federal standards. And it would ensure that truck traffic is routed through the industrial park rather than neighborhoods, he promised.
They also brought laudatory letters from neighbors of a similar project in Fairfax and invited commissioners and city staff to view that plant.
But the promises held little water with the residents.
Springtree resident Jim Phillips noted that the Westvaco paper mill in Covington also meets environmental standards.
"But the fact is it still stinks so bad that nobody wants to live there," he said.
The asphalt plant can't go through without a vote by City Council to rezone the property. That is expected to make it to council's agenda in May.
by CNB