Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 18, 1995                   TAG: 9510180056
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

BOTETOURT BACKS 2 NEW BUSINESSES

Botetourt County's building boom got its second wind Tuesday as plans were approved for a new Cracker Barrel restaurant and for a golf course that could be surrounded by 300 new houses.

Both projects are situated near the fast-developing Interstate 81-U.S. 220 corridor near Daleville. And both were given special exemptions by the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors.

The Cracker Barrel will be near Exit 150 on I-81 at Troutville. It will be built adjacent to a recently completed Holiday Inn Express motel.

The proposed golf community, which is not yet named, would be just north of Daleville along U.S. 220 near the proposed Botetourt Center at Greenfield multiuse park.

Ed McRae, real estate manager for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, the Lebanon, Tenn.-based chain, said he hoped to begin construction by November. He said the restaurant should open in the spring.

In order to encourage Cracker Barrel to locate in the county, the Botetourt supervisors authorized an exemption to the county's sign ordinance, which limits sign height to 35 feet.

McRae told the supervisors that the company needed a 55-foot high sign to attract the 1,500 to 1,600 customers it needs daily to remain profitable. Restaurants around the interstate exit already have signs as high as 100 feet.

The proposed restaurant, which would employ about 80 people, would have an annual payroll of about $1.2 million with annual sales of about $3 million, McRae said.

T.D. Steele, whose Woodhill Corp. owns the 422 acres for the golf course, said he will sell the land to developer A.R. Overbay.

Steele said he needed a special exemption permit for the golf course before the sale could be completed.

He said Overbay plans to build houses around the golf course.

Overbay plans to begin construction of the golf course in the spring, Steele said.