ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606250003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: LETTERS
Our vision for the development on Price Mountain includes provision for a safe development, houses that are compatible with other housing in the area and built to comply with conservation policies for the area. We don't see this in the present plan before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
On the south side, the developer is requesting zoning R-2 for 250 dwelling units on 251.23 acres. The residents would have only one way in and out of the development and that is through Oilwell Road and Merrimac Road. We believe this to be a "roundabout" route that does not provide for a safe community in the event of fire or an ice storm when emergency vehicles need to get in and/or the residents out. The developer recognizes this problem by offering to support other road connections, but we believe it is the responsibility of the developer to provide these roads rather than leave the problem to Montgomery County or the Virginia Department of Transportation to "fix" later at public expense.
On the north side, the developer is asking for RM-1 zoning (multi-family, townhouses, etc.). This is not only inconsistent with the single-family residences on five acres in the area but is against the 1991 policy statement of the Planning Commission for development in a conservation area and against the county's comprehensive plan.
We believe that the current proposal should be rejected for a more responsible development of Price Mountain.
Tom and Lou Herrmann
Blacksburg
Editor's note: The Price Mountain rezoning proposal will be up for a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg.
Rezoning will make all losers
We all lose by rezoning Price Mountain for two to three homes per acre and multifamily housing.
It ignores the Montgomery County comprehensive plan, a bad precedent. In the plan, Price Mountain is designated "Rural and Conservation" for "primarily forestry areas. Some ridgeline and valley areas suitable for 5-10 acre" lots.
Because Price Mountain is highly visible, the quality of its development should be assured. Blacksburg Town Council and its Planning Commission recommended a Planned Unit Development District, not the open-ended, wholesale rezoning with only a proffer of maximum units that's now under consideration by Montgomery County.
The state resident highway engineer says three secondary roads not on the six-year plan will have to be significantly improved. With only $1.5 million from the state annually, this $4 million cost will bump current projects.
Montgomery County code states, "Dead-end streets shall serve no more than thirty-five (35) dwelling units, unless the Board of Supervisors determines that terrain or other factors dictate otherwise." Oilwell Road is a dead-end street on mountainous terrain. Two-hundred-fifty homes will be at risk in case of fire or emergency with only one way on or off the mountain.
The current neighborhood has a five-acre lot requirement. Putting 180 multifamily units (student housing) at the end of Oilwell Road will destroy it.
Dr. Frank Pearsall
Blacksburg
Thanks on behalf of Yaroslavl
I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the many students and faculty at Blacksburg High School who donated medical and other supplies to the Yaroslavl Baby House No. 1 in Yaroslavl, Russia.
In a casual conversation with Cindy Mitchell, a Blacksburg High business education teacher, who was instrumental in organizing this effort, I mentioned the many needs of the children institutionalized in orphanages throughout Russia. Mitchell galvanized student groups and individuals, who supplied me with nearly two suitcases full of medical supplies (including thermometers, cold remedies, vitamins, Band-Aids and other medications), candies for the children and clothing. During my recent trip there, I was able to hand-deliver all the supplies to the orphanage, and the director was extremely grateful. The children in the Russian orphanages live a Spartan but clean existence, but they have many medical and physical needs. I was very touched by the outpouring of goodwill that the students and faculty gave and will remain in their debt, and I only regret that I couldn't say so in person before the school year ended.
Beth Waggnespack
Blacksburg
Thief had no feelings
On May 14 we very sadly laid my uncle to rest at Sunset Cemetery in Christiansburg. He was buried in the front section near the road. Many beautiful flowers were sent by family and friends from all over and placed upon his grave. Four nieces and their families had wreaths special-made into a mallard duck and a chicken.
The cost of these is of no importance but the sentiment is. Our plans were to leave these on the grave for two or three days and then remove them and replace the live flowers with artificial ones - because he so loved his ducks and chickens.
On May 17 at about 11 a.m., I went to my uncle's grave to get the wreaths. Much to my sadness, the chicken had been taken from the grave. I quickly checked with the gentlemen at the cemetery and they assured me it was there at 7 a.m.
Somewhere within a four-hour span, in broad daylight, a person with no feelings at all took - "stole" - this from my uncle's grave.
If the person that did this is reading this letter today, please think about what you have done: Think about how you would feel if someone did this to you or your family.
All I ask of you is please - and I plead - take the chicken wreath back to his grave. I don't care who you are or why you did it - just please take it back.
Sharon K. Flinchum
Christiansburg
'Thanks, Tech, but no thanks
No thank you very much, Dr. Paul Torgersen, for your disingenuous offer to trade 140 acres of Virginia Tech property on Price Mountain for the same acreage of agricultural and forestal district land in the path of the "smart" road. While an apt display of Tech's desperation for the road, this offer is scant mitigation for the bifurcation of one of the county's largest AFDs.
The inequity in a one-for-one swap lies in the fact that the road's impact - visual, noise and pollution - will extend way beyond the right of way. Plus, the impact on wildlife is significant. An isolated "AFD lite," on Price Mountain, already in a state of preservation, is hardly a fair trade for the heart of AFD 7 (all the while rendering state AFD preservation laws impotent).
A more sincere offer would be to devote a strip of Tech farm property adjacent to U.S. 460 bypass in Blacksburg, where the coveted test bed could be built, obviating the Ellett Valley corridor road entirely. This bed offers several advantages over the smart road plan: It is available immediately, it requires no land condemnation and affects no AFD lands, it presents no conflict with endangered species or historical sites, it traverses no steep terrain and it is supremely convenient to campus.
Best of all, it is PERMANENT (most folks don't realize that the test bed on the smart road is available only between the time at which a two-mile dead-end bed is built and when the entire corridor is converted to a four-lane highway, a period of just 10 to 15 years, after which Tech will again be searching for a new bed). The U.S. 460 site is available as long as road testing is lucrative and can later be restored for farm research.
Why Tech continues to press so hard for the Ellett Valley site is beyond me. But I say a resounding "No thanks."
Michael S. Abraham
Blacksburg
Public duped in earlier swap
Regarding Virginia Tech's not-so-gracious offer to swap 140 acres on Price Mountain for the 140 acres that would be removed from AFD-7 in Ellett Valley for construction of the smart road:
About 10 years ago, there was a similar land-swap deal in which the unwitting public also was duped. Virginia Tech officials secretly traded their prime horticultural lands along U.S. 460 for less-than-prime acreage way over on the New River. The land along U.S. 460, where the old, vacant Wal-Mart is today, then was rezoned for commercial use. This shady, back-door deal served to create the hideous U.S. 460 strip of non-local chain merchants that has bankrupted the downtown business centers in Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and resulted in the traffic congestion that has necessitated the Alternative 3A U.S. 460 bypass connector.
As for the trade for the AFD-7 acreage, it is, at worst, a bribe, and, at best, a meaningless gesture. The construction of the "smart" road would remove a strip of 140 acres, bisecting the agricultural/forestal district and fragmenting the ecosystem that provides habitat for the threatened and endangered species that exist there. It also would have an extremely adverse effect on those landowners whose land would be taken. A small, remote parcel is no recompense for destroying the integrity of a large, protected area.
Shireen I. Parsons
Riner
Price will come with 'development'
It was with a terrible dread and disappointment that I heard our Montgomery County Board of Supervisors vote Monday night to take the land out of the agricultural and forestal district in the Ellett Valley in the name of "economic development."
This genie called economic development will exact his price. But the problem is that we will not want to pay. We will want to move away to a cleaner, prettier, safer place.
The last two years have been like an unbelievable, nightmarish dream for me. A democracy ls supposed to be one voice, one vote for.the good of all. What really happens is that those who have the most power win, and their will is imposed on the "lesser citizens." I leave it to your imagination to see this most recent scenario at the latest public address session on the "smart" highway. The president of Virginia Tech speaks, followed by various other important suited men. (We know that they are important because they introduce themselves by listing their credentials.)
These men speak powerfully of the benefits to the county of the smart road because it will bring more power and prestige to Virginia Tech and economic development for the county. Then the citizens of Montgomery county speak (they don't give their resumes so we can't tell if they are equally important). They talk about the Ellett Valley and what it means to them and how important it is not to have economic development in this ecologically fragile, beautiful valley.
The citizens employed by Virginia Tech opposing economic development in the Ellett Valley were scared before the meeting. They are intimidated into not speaking out against the policies and views of the Virginia Tech administration. They either sat silently or did not come to the meeting. After the Board of Supervisors announced its vote, we all are scared, because we know now that nobody speaks for the local citizenry or represents us.
By the Board of Supervisors' vote to take land out of the district and split it up, precedents have been set; control over local matters gives way to state control and the agricultural and forestal districts are meaningless to protect the land.
Real life now feels like the tiger dream where you see a tiger and you try to run but your legs don't work. The only relief from the dream is to wake up to real llfe. Unfortunately, the dream is now real. The federal government has just said that American Electric Power's proposed 765,000-volt powerline may not cross the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests because of severe environmental impacts. Guess whose land it will cross. It will be a waste of time asking our local governing body for help.
Lynda J. Majors
Blacksburg
Safe, compatible housing planned
Our vision for the development on Price Mountain includes provision for a safe development, houses that are compatible with other housing in the area and built to comply with conservation policies for the area. We don't see this in the present plan before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
On the south side, the developer is requesting zoning R-2 for 250 dwelling units on 251.23 acres. The residents would have only one way in and out of the development and that is through Oilwell Road and Merrimac Road. We believe this to be a "roundabout" route that does not provide for a safe community in the event of fire or an ice storm when emergency vehicles need to get in and/or the residents out. The developer recognizes this problem by offering to support other road connections, but we believe it is the responsibility of the developer to provide these roads rather than leave the problem to Montgomery County or the Virginia Department of Transportation to "fix" later at public expense.
On the north side, the developer is asking for RM-1 zoning (multi-family, townhouses, etc.). This is not only inconsistent with the single-family residences on five acres in the area but is against the 1991 policy statement of the Planning Commission for development in a conservation area and against the county's comprehensive plan.
We believe that the current proposal should be rejected for a more responsible development of Price Mountain.
Tom and Lou Herrmann
Blacksburg
Editor's note: The Price Mountain rezoning proposal will be up for a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg.
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