Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Like it or not, McDonald's has a right to move into Oak Grove Plaza in Roanoke County, the Roanoke County Planning Commission ruled Tuesday.
And there are many people who don't like it.
Harold Quinley is one of them. He showed up at the commission's public hearing Tuesday armed with a petition bearing the names of 352 people who are opposed to a fast-food restaurant going into Oak Grove Plaza.
"I'm not opposed to a McDonald's restaurant - somewhere else," Quinley said.
But the old SupeRx site in the plaza, which McDonald's has in mind for its restaurant, is zoned to allow commercial use on the county's comprehensive plan. The question before the commission was not whether the restaurant could build in Oak Grove, but if it could have a special-use permit to have a drive-through window.
"We feel if this ramp is denied they won't go in there," said Quinley, who was one of more than 50 people who attended the hearing.
But denying the drive-through is a decision Planning Commission member Don Witt said he could not justify.
"It's the most intense land use you can have. I have to question if I deny this, where can it go?'' Witt said.
Planning Commission member Al Thomason agreed, despite the 78 calls he received opposing the McDonald's - he got 55 in favor of it.
"Without a meeting, an auto dealer, an auto repair service, could go in there. How long are we going to just let this area deteriorate?'' Thomason asked.
Oak Grove Plaza is 65 percent full. Its owner has said without an anchor business it cannot get the money to renovate, and without renovation it cannot attract an anchor tenant.
The McDonald's will be "breathing new life into this neighborhood center," said Maryellen Goodlatte, the lawyer representing McDonald's at the public hearing.
The plaza's current tenants share Goodlatte's assessment. And they didn't come to the meeting empty-handed.
Chuck Parker, owner of the plaza's Jumbo's Pizzas and Subs, presented the commission with a petition signed by about 300 plaza customers in support of McDonald's.
However, part of what fueled his and other small-business owners' involvement in the McDonald's issue was the possibility of a developer purchasing the plaza and tearing it down.
For weeks that was a possibility. Collett & Associates, a North Carolina corporate and commercial real estate company, launched a major lobbying campaign in September. The company wanted to purchase the plaza to build a grocery store. It said it would not do so if McDonald's moved in, and encouraged area residents to urge county officials to reject the McDonald's plan.
The grocery store is no longer part of the equation. In a letter dated Tuesday, Ryland Winston of Collett said, "I regret to inform you that both Collett Properties Inc. and our tenant have now elected to cease our efforts to acquire Oak Grove Plaza and to construct a new grocery store thereon."
That has not, however, quelled the objections of neighbors. They say a fast-food restaurant would exacerbate its existing traffic problems, permeate the air with food smells and create a litter problem.
"We have a community here, retired people mostly who've lived here 30 plus years, and we like it as is. I support any kind of business that could enhance our community, and I don't think McDonald's would," said Quinley, who later this month plans to make his case before the Board of Supervisors, which has the final say.
In other business, the commission approved Steve Musselwhite's request to rezone 38.22 acres from single-family residential to a planned residential development. The development, which is off Mountain View Road north of the Blue Ridge Parkway, will allow 37 traditional single-family homes, 49 village or cluster homes, and 15 town homes. It also will provide for about 9 acres of open space.
by CNB