ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608190051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
ARMED WITH a lawyer and a petition, the SPCA tries again, despite rejections by a commission, civic league and businesses.
Bolstered by resident support, the Roanoke Valley SPCA will ask Roanoke City Council on Monday to refer a request to rezone property for a new animal shelter back to the Planning Commission for reconsideration.
Last month, the commission recommended to council that the SPCA's request be denied. The SPCA wants to renovate a 5,200-square-foot building off U.S. 460 in Northeast Roanoke and construct shelter space on adjoining property. That property must be rezoned from light to heavy manufacturing use.
Al Alexander, SPCA shelter director, said the organization was blindsided by a strong show of opposition at the Planning Commission's July meeting. Business owners and members of the Wildwood Civic League told commissioners they opposed the SPCA's plans because of the site's proximity to food outlets.
"We didn't expect that much opposition," Alexander said. "We just weren't prepared, and we need some time to prepare."
The SPCA has since hired Roanoke County lawyer Edward Natt.
Natt, who could not be reached for comment Friday, will not be at Monday's meeting. But Alexander and two SPCA board members will ask that the rezoning request go back to the Planning Commission. Their appeal will be reinforced by a petition signed by more than 1,500 supporters of the new animal-shelter plans, many of whom live in the area or own nearby businesses.
Pat Vess of Roanoke County said she was surprised to read in a newspaper article last month that people opposed the SPCA's plans. She said she was particularly upset that a neighborhood civic league - whose jurisdiction and membership include the proposed site as well as people who live further from the site than she does - opposed the planned shelter.
"I'm in the neighborhood where it's actually going," Vess said, who lives in an area covered by the La Bellevue/Ruritan Road Neighborhood Watch Group. "We should have a say in this, too."
Vess and four other residents launched a petition drive last weekend. They gathered 1,541 signatures.
"When we told people what the petition was about, people were enthusiastic," said Nancy Johnson, co-coordinator of the neighborhood watch group. "They said, 'It's about time.' They couldn't understand why people were objecting to it."
But members of the Wildwood Civic League are not wavering from their position.
"We're as determined as ever," said Roy Stroop, league president. "We just don't think that's a good location, amongst all those eating places."
Several business owners also voiced their opposition at the Planning Commission meeting in July. Frank Foti, owner of the Western Sizzlin' restaurant in a shopping center across the street from the proposed shelter site, told commissioners of his concern about odor and his fear that his business would drop. According to minutes of the commission meeting, he said he would have located the restaurant somewhere else had he known of a proposal to put an animal shelter in the area.
League members and business owners met with the SPCA months ago to discuss odor and noise. The SPCA incorporated measures into the shelter's design and construction to address those concerns. All animals will be boarded indoors; there will be no outdoor kennels; and a ventilation system will recirculate 50 percent of the air rather than dump it all outside.
The Planning Commission's recommendation against the rezoning was not based on the concerns of the civic league or business owners, commission chairwoman Carolyn Hayes Coles said last month. The proposal itself was wonderful, she said.
The commission was concerned, though, about setting a zoning precedent in an area that has had an "outburst" of commercial businesses in recent years, she said.
But in a letter to City Council, included in a packet of information sent to Natt earlier this month, Coles wrote that "should council desire, the commission would be happy to meet further with the [SPCA] and the public to reconsider the matter and discuss outstanding issues in greater detail."
Coles could not be reached for comment about her letter. But Alexander said he interpreted it as a positive.
"It seems to me someone is willing to listen, and that's what we're hoping for," he said.
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