ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will have to sign over the deed to Falling Branch Industrial Park to the county's Industrial Development Authority to take advantage of funding to build the park.
But some supervisors, most notably Joe Stewart, had reservations about signing over the land. After a closed-door session Tuesday, the supervisors voted 6-1 to negotiate a contract with the development authority. Stewart ended up the lone dissenter.
Falling Branch was launched three years ago to bring new high-tech jobs to the New River Valley. The 165-acre park remains vacant because of the lack of roads, grading, water and sewer lines.
But money for those projects may be on the way.
Don Moore, the county's economic development director, said the Rural Economic and Community Development agency will give the development authority $1 million and an 80 percent guarantee on a $3.5 million bank loan. To get that loan, one of the things that has to happen is the county must put the deed in the authority's name, Moore said.
During a public hearing on the proposal earlier in Tuesday's meeting, Moore told supervisors that publicly owned, fully developed sites see more prospects sent in by the state than those that aren't.
In other business, the supervisors held joint public hearings with the Planning Commission on rezoning requests. Those included:
nA request by L&S Partnership of Blacksburg for a special-use permit for housing for the elderly on Farmview Road near the Christiansburg U.S. 460 bypass.
B.F. Holstein Jr., who has been in the nursing home business locally for almost 20 years, told the supervisors the project was needed to meet the growing housing needs for the elderly in this "prime retirement area."
Plans call for 80 units, with 20 condominiums and 60 assisted living units on 7.8 acres. The property was rezoned to multifamily in 1990 and a special-use permit for the project was granted then. But no construction took place and the permit expired. A second special-use permit for ordinary multifamily housing was granted in 1993 and has been extended twice. The owner now wants a new permit to allow the elderly housing project, and is increasing the original proposal from 32 to 80 units.
Nearby landowners were concerned about increased traffic on an unpaved road. The planners recommended the supervisors approve the request, with conditions that included a privacy fence and improving the road.
nA request by Larry N. Smith to rezone a parcel of less than an acre on Prices Fork Road from agricultural to general business. Smith wants to build and operate a farm supply store that he and supporters said would help farmers avoid long drives to Christiansburg or Giles County to purchase supplies.
But Jim Noonkester, who owns nearby A&J Quick Shop, opposed the request.
"I don't think there's enough business there for three businesses," he said. Two other nearby property owners also opposed the request.
"I think an old farm store would look pretty good in the community," Smith responded. Last fall, the planners rejected Smith's request to build a small office building there.
The planners recommended the supervisors approve a more limited business zoning that allows for stores up to 3,000 square feet.
The supervisors also heard, during public address, from county Treasurer Ellis Meredith. He asked for help in protecting three positions in his office the state Compensation Board plans to eliminate.
Meredith said the positions can't be filled once current employees leave. One employee who fills a delinquent-tax collecting position that has netted the county more than $500,000, will be leaving next month.
Meredith plans to appeal the cuts, and the supervisors will send a letter of support for keeping the positions.
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