Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Land banking, as it's called, allows the county to rezone parcels of land for commercial or industrial development before it has a prospective buyer. That's how the county's 175-acre Valley Techpark - where Rusco Window Co. broke ground on a new site last week - got its start in 1989.
Since then, about every two years, the county's Industrial Development Authority has taken the Board of Supervisors a list of sites for rezoning.
In May, Gubala went to the board with a list of about 40 parcels of developable land totaling more than 900 acres. The Planning Commission gave its OK to the first wave of those rezonings - about 23 acres - Tuesday.
"We didn't have any commercial sites, but we had a number of prospects. So we decided to do some proactive rezoning," Gubala said.
He said the county lacks sites in the 26- to 50-acre and 51- to 100-acre ranges and land in the Interstate 81 corridor. Most of the sites are vacant and will be marketable to companies in three to five years. Some sites need water and sewer or other improvements.
Tuesday's rezonings included adjusting the eastern property line of one acre next to Hunting Hills Country Club, changing the zoning of about 20 acres from industrial to commercial in a Fralin & Waldron Inc. development in Bonsack, and rezoning two acres in Valley Techpark.
Edward Natt, a lawyer for the Industrial Development Authority, said the site in Valley Techpark probably will be used for a sign.
It will take until year's end for all 900 acres to make it through the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. The county's planning staff decides which sites come up first.
In Tuesday's case, the staff "looked at the list, and these are no-brainers. They're adjustments of property lines" and are not controversial, Gubala said of the three rezonings. No residents showed up Tuesday to comment on the rezonings.
Some of the proposed rezonings may prove more contentious.
"We'll have some community meetings and discussion with neighbors" about those issues, Gubala said.
Supervisor Lee Eddy was the only supervisor to vote against the May resolution to move ahead with the rezonings. His reasons involved long-range planning.
Eddy argued that the county should not undertake such a large rezoning project until its visioning process and revisions to the comprehensive plan are completed.
In the visioning process, residents were asked to map out how they wanted the county to look in the year 2010. Work on updating the county's comprehensive plan, which is the actual strategy for making that vision a reality, will start in January.
"These rezonings will be in conformity with those reports," Gubala said. "They supported the need for rezoning vacant land."
The summary report that supervisors received from the Economic Development and Tourism visioning focus group advocates "adequately funding the Industrial Development Authority, enabling them to acquire property and providing the infrastructure to encourage economic growth."
It does not, however, spell out the nuts and bolts of zoning matters.
by CNB