Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995 TAG: 9504060096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The couple moved from Long Island, N.Y., bought a house on Cotton Hill Road from developer Len Boone and have been here ever since.
"The parkway is our mainstay," Fran Marrano said Wednesday night.
She and about 200 others came to a public meeting to see what Boone plans to do with one of the last open spaces left in Roanoke County along the national scenic highway.
She liked what she saw.
"Let's face it," she said. "We'd all rather not have any development." But if the 235-acre tract has to be developed, what Boone has in mind suits her OK.
Boone has worked with parkway and county officials and landscape architects over the past several months to design a community that blends in with the rural setting that draws millions of visitors to the parkway every year.
He announced at the meeting that he plans to donate about 11.5 acres of "critical viewshed" to the National Park Service "to ensure it is always protected."
Part of that land abuts the parkway. Two other parcels make up ridgetops that motorists see as they come around a curve. Boone's plan also calls for about another 30 acres to remain open space.
The rest of the development will include pockets of mostly single-family homes and perhaps some condominiums or townhouses, if the market demands that, Boone said. Under an agreement to be worked out with the county and Park Service, the homes will be built using natural materials and earth tones to blend in with the scenery.
"We never thought about hurting the parkway," Boone said.
He conceded that his first idea was a more traditional development. But after working with Carlton Abbott, a Williamsburg architect whose father was a key designer of the parkway decades ago, Boone said, "I think it's safe to say I've become a believer."
Developer Steve Musselwhite also worked with the group on a creative design for his 38-acre tract farther north on the parkway's 29-mile run through the county. His plans also call for leaving the land adjacent to the parkway as open space and following the same architectural guidelines.
"Sounds good - if it materializes like they present it," said one resident of the Falling Creek subdivision, which surrounds Musselwhite's land.
"It's not done till it's done," said another Falling Creek resident. "We've seen some good intentions from some good people," but he remained a bit skeptical about whether it would come to pass.
Both developers will be legally obligated to stick to these ideas once they get easements from the Park Service to cross the road with sewer lines, and once the county agrees to rezone the land.
Much of the meeting was devoted to the players involved thanking each other for their cooperation and congratulating one another.
The last few months of negotiations reached almost summit proportions, as each side came to the table with their separate agendas.
"There were times at the beginning of the meeting there was a lot of frustration," said County Administrator Elmer Hodge. "There were times Jim [Olin] had to referee."
Olin, a former congressman who is co-chairman of the Coalition for the Blue Ridge Parkway, is credited with orchestrating the deal.
All the players hope the two projects will be used as a model for other landowners and localities along the parkway and throughout the country.
The two proposals likely will come before the county Board of Supervisors this fall.
by CNB