ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
The howls of residents and nearby business owners won out over the plans of animal lovers Monday night before Roanoke City Council, which rejected a bid by the Roanoke Valley SPCA to build a state-of-the-art animal shelter in Northeast Roanoke.
Unless council reconsiders its action at its next meeting, the 5-2 vote means the SPCA will have to wait at least a year before applying again to rezone the 4-acre property off Lynn Brae Drive and U.S. 460.
"We'll be back next year," said Lynda McGarry, vice president of the organization, which has been searching for years for a site suitable to replace its flood-prone headquarters on the other side of Orange Avenue. "We may put administrative offices in there now," she added.
The property in question, on the north side of 460, is zoned for commercial and light manufacturing. The organization was seeking to have it rezoned to allow for heavy manufacturing, a designation that would allow an animal shelter.
The SPCA has already purchased the property and raised more than two-thirds of the $1 million it needs to build the shelter, which would be entirely indoors and include an animal hospital. Its current shelter, which is in a low-lying area, floods during heavy rains.
After months of delays, the Roanoke Planning Commission held a hearing on the rezoning last month and voted 5-0 against it. Chairman Carolyn Coles said, after that vote, that the commission feared requests for more rezoning would follow.
The SPCA appealed that vote to City Council, and Monday night asked that the issue be referred back to the Planning Commission, a move that would keep the request alive.
But about 25 residents who turned out for the hearing Monday wanted the issue quashed. When it was, they clapped loudly.
Residents feared noise from the facility, although SPCA officials promised it would have noise insulation.
The residents also feared odors, although the SPCA said that most of the inside air would be filtered and recirculated.
And residents said the new shelter would unsuitably be placed near eight restaurants and two grocery stores and be adjacent to a child-care center.
One of the prime concerns was that a dog pound also would move to the new site. SPCA officials would not promise they wouldn't move the pound there.
"The SPCA is an honorable organization, and I'll be the first to say they need to relocate," said Wildwood Civic League President Roy Stroop. "But not to this particular place. ... The SPCA has not promised us - and I don't think they can promise us - that there won't be odor or noise."
Others feared the shelter would dissuade businesses from occupying nearby commercial properties.
Voting to reject the rezoning were Councilmen Jim Trout, Nelson Harris, Carroll Swain, Jack Parrott and William White. Vice Mayor Linda Wyatt wanted to send the issue back to the Planning Commission, and Mayor David Bowers voted with her.
"This matter has been long around, since the middle of December," Parrott said. "I cannot imagine any [other] facts that would make a difference."
In other action, council:
Agreed to spend $50,700 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds on a boxing program serving 50 low-to moderate-income teens and adults. Council also approved $15,000 in general fund expenditures for equipment for the program, sponsored by the Roanoke City Boxing Association. And council authorized a lease agreement with the boxing group for the use of facilities at Victory Stadium.
Approved a "Percent for the Arts" program that would annually fund works of art as part of the city's capital improvement program. A committee of seven persons - four appointed by the city manager, and three appointed by the chairman of the Roanoke Arts Commission - will annually review upcoming capital projects and select at least one as suitable as a site for public art, which would be funded by the city.
Approved a $60,000 contract with Whitescarver, Hurd & Obenchain Inc. for engineering services on a new fire alarm and temperature control system at the Roanoke Civic Center. The system itself is expected to cost more than $500,000.
Approved $175,000 in city funding for the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission. The Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation has also transferred an identical amount to the commission.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB