ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609160022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Fearing that proposed rezoning for a drugstore may lead to a new fire station next to Patrick Henry High School, the Raleigh Court Civic League on Monday will ask City Council to put off deciding whether Rite Aid may build a store at the intersection of Brandon Avenue and Edgewood Street.
The decision came after Fire Department officials unveiled a map of potential sites for new fire stations - a thorny issue throughout city neighborhoods right now - at a Greater Raleigh Court Civic League meeting Thursday.
The map showed the potential drugstore site - now a weed-strewn, closed gas station - as the possible location for a large fire station that would replace two smaller stations, Fire Station No. 4 on Aerial Way Drive near Deyerle Road and Fire Station No. 7 on Memorial Avenue in Raleigh Court.
Previously, Fire Department officials had given civic league leaders indications that the Brandon-Edgewood location was unsuitable for a new fire station, said Mike Urbanski, president of the civic league. A look at the map caused them to question those assurances.
The league is concerned because there are only a few suitable sites for a merged station in the Brandon Avenue and Grandin Road corridors. One of the others is a flat stretch of city-owned land on Grandin Road in Shrine Hill Park, next to Patrick Henry High School. The civic league wants to build a soccer field on that park land.
"The Raleigh Court Civic League would rather have a fire station at Brandon and Edgewood and a soccer field next to Patrick Henry High School than a fire station next to Patrick Henry High School and a drugstore at Brandon and Edgewood," Urbanski said Friday.
At the meeting, Urbanski told Deputy Fire Chief Billy Southhall: "I think you guys need to understand our resolve. Our board was unanimous. We don't want a fire station next to Patrick Henry High School."
Besides the desire for a soccer field, the civic league believes a station on Grandin would be too close to the heavily traveled Brandon-Grandin intersection. There are frequent morning and afternoon backups on both roads as students head to and from school.
But from the cash-strapped city's perspective, a fire station on the park might be ideal. The city likely would pay a high price for the commercially zoned property at Brandon and Edgewood, while it already owns the park land along Grandin. The drugstore would pay hefty annual real estate taxes; a fire station would pay none.
Southhall told the civic league that neither site has been earmarked for a fire station, and no decision has been made to close either station - although that is the recommendation of a Fire Department study committee. The floor of the Memorial Avenue station is beginning to deteriorate under the weight of a 35-ton ladder truck, he said. The city rents the Aerial Way Drive facility.
Urbanski said the civic league wants the Rite Aid rezoning put off until the Fire Department decides where it wants to go. Southhall told the civic leave that could take six months.
"The city, exercising foresight, ought to consider both of these things at the same time," Urbanski said. "I am going to ask [council] not to make a judgment on this until the Fire Department decides where they're going to put a fire station. I think that we're putting the cart before the horse."
City Councilman Nelson Harris, who has already questioned the rezoning for the drugstore, said Raleigh Court's concerns increase chances council may hold off on the rezoning. The league, with 700 members, is one of the largest civic organizations in Roanoke.
"It's frankly disturbing that here you have this rezoning request coming to council Monday night, and on the previous Thursday you have the Fire Department going to the Raleigh Court Civic League with a map indicating that that site may be the location of a merged fire station," Harris said.
"Here you have the Planning Department, which has worked up to this point with the Rite Aid people, while at the same time, you have, apparently, the Fire Department eyeballing, in a very preliminary way, the same site," Harris added. "Which voice is the city speaking with? Do we want that site commercialized, with the Rite Aid store going in there, or do we want a fire station going in there?"
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