Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 15, 1995 TAG: 9506150025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Town Council saw to that Tuesday night when it approved a rezoning request for 96 acres in the Toms Creek basin where developers plan to build 200 mixed-style homes while leaving almost half the land as open space.
Throughout the six-month debate over the proposal by restaurateur Don Wells and local architect Robert Mills, supporters and opponents alike have agreed that the idea is untried around here.
When built over three phases, Spring Valley will confine a mixture of cottages, town homes and estate-like houses to two areas that constitute just more than 50 percent of the plot of land that sits just off Toms Creek Road and U.S. 460. The remainder of the land will be preserved as meadows, ponds and streams, fields and other areas of open space. The villages will have alleyways; homes, placed close together with little front lawns, will be built according to a model book; a homeowners' association will maintain the common areas.
"We found this beautiful piece of property that to us exemplified what could be done in the Toms Creek basin," Wells told Town Council Tuesday night. "We have sought to address every, every legitimate concern. We have sought to make this a very unique and a very special community."
But for all the developers' efforts to inform the community about how Spring Valley will be a vast improvement over what development could potentially occur, plenty of residents have been concerned about water run-off problems, traffic and the number of houses to be built. At 200 homes, rezoning the land to "planned residential development," will allow more than twice the number of homes that could have been built previously.
Moises Quinones, whose home borders the Spring Valley site, attacked the developers' arguments that the subdivision would not be economically feasible if fewer than 200 homes were built. He cited a 110-signature petition from residents opposed to raising the housing density for Spring Valley.
"I believe they [the petitioners] know what they're talking about," Quinones said.
Other residents begged the town to make good on its pledge to share the costs of controlling water runoff from the area, admonished it for not taking action in the past, and urged it to make sure the developers lived up to their claim that they will reduce runoff to a level lower than what currently occurs.
"I think it is time that the town assume its responsibility" for controlling runoff that occurs on the west side of the U.S. 460 bypass and from the University Mall and nearby apartment areas, said Jay Price, who lives nearby on Spring Hollow Lane. Price said he was not opposed to Spring Valley but is concerned about the runoff problem in general. "One summer I replaced my bridge three times. That's the strength of water. It scares me to death."
"We get hit by water in one direction; we don't want to get hit by water in two directions," said Bob Smibert another neighbor opposed to Spring Valley.
Other residents supported the request, citing the developers' knack at communication and their ability to compromise. The Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution in favor of Spring Valley.
"I think it would be an understatement to say that Town Council" has plenty of information on the development, Mayor Roger Hedgepeth said following public discussion that ended after almost two hours.
Councilman Waldon Kerns said the town needed to solve the area's runoff problems by including a solution in next year's capital improvement projects list.
"I think now's the time to do it," Councilwoman Frances Parsons said in agreement.
Council members acknowledged many of the concerns raised but voted nonetheless to grant the rezoning request by a 5-1 vote, with Councilman Michael Chandler, the lone naysayer, saying he thought the density was too high.
"It's not so much how many buildings you have, but how and where they sit on the land," Hedgepeth said. In voting for the request he said, "the current [limited residential] zoning, if left in place, would not produce the kind of character" that Spring Valley will.
by CNB