ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Planning Commission has delayed, until at least next week, consideration of a major new development proposal for the top of Price Mountain.
The commission took a first look at William H. Price's 538-acre rezoning application Wednesday, but tabled it until Monday because of a technical error in the document, said Joe Powers, county planning director.
That's because in 250 acres of the request Price is pledging to develop lots with a minimum size of one-third of an acre. Yet he has asked for a zoning status for that portion that requires a half-acre minimum lot size.
The planners are giving Price a chance to amend his application, which includes different sections for single-family homes, town houses and duplexes.
"If he gets us something by Monday night, we'll go back and look at it after the [joint] public hearings" with the Board of Supervisors, Powers said. The commission and the board are to hold 7 p.m. hearings on Radford Community Hospital's rezoning request for its planned new hospital at Interstate 81 and Virginia 177.
During discussion Wednesday, two Planning Commission members suggested the project is large enough that Price ought to use a planned-unit development approach rather than a traditional subdivision rezoning, Powers said.
That would require far more detailed planning up front, but would also give the developer more flexibility in mixing different densities and types of development.
Once the amended application comes back to the county Planning Commission, the planners must decide whether to recommend that the supervisors schedule a public hearing in February or March.
Price, a Blacksburg real-estate developer, has filed the rezoning request on behalf of Price Real Estate Inc. and Triple J Investments Inc. Price is president and his son, Jeffrey, is vice president of both corporations, according to State Corporation Commission records.
The rezoning would cover both the north, or Blacksburg-facing, and south, or Christiansburg-facing, slopes of Price Mountain, the dominant mountain between the two towns. The rezoning request includes most of the east end of the mountain, that is, the area between several communications towers visible atop the ridge and the Merrimac community just west of U.S. 460.
The application already has raised concerns among Blacksburg planners for its potential impact on the area's aesthetics, on utility services and on the number of cars on rural roads. In an analysis prepared last week for the Blacksburg Planning Commission, Adele Schirmer, the town's planning director, recommended that the north slope be developed with a minimum lot size of five acres. That would be similar to the approach taken in the Laurel Ridge subdivision on Brush Mountain, a neighborhood "that is sensitive to the topography and preserves the character of a wooded slope," Schirmer wrote.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB