ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610040001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
As the owner of Bogen's Restaurant, Bill Ellenbogen was the first president of Blacksburg's Downtown Merchants Association.
He has owned the popular North Main Street eatery since 1982 and has been a vocal force in the town's downtown business community since.
But if Blacksburg's new zoning ordinance is approved by Town Council, Ellenbogen would no longer be considered a downtown merchant and Bogen's would no longer be considered a downtown restaurant.
For Ellenbogen, several proposed zoning changes to the town's commercial district are more than semantics; they could cost him money.
Several other downtown business owners joined Ellenbogen Tuesday night in speaking against changes included in the town's new zoning ordinance during a two-hour public comment session held by the Blacksburg Planning Commission.
The proposed zoning ordinance is scheduled for a public hearing before the Town Council Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building. . The Planning Commission met again Wednesday night to discuss the new zoning ordinance following Tuesday's public hearing.
Under the town's current zoning, the downtown commercial district extends north to where Main Street curves and intersects with Progress Street. The new zoning plan would end the downtown district at Turner Street, a long block before Ellenbogen's popular restaurant. Bogen's would move into a proposed general commercial district.
Both of the new commercial districts would have lower allowed maximum heights - from 60 feet to 45 feet - - for Ellenbogen's building and no parking in the front.
Ellenbogen said the parking's not a problem. His patrons park on the side and in back and next door, but the proposed maximum height could be.
Ellenbogen said he has not measured his three-story building, but he's certain it's more than 45 feet high. The height would make the building a nonconforming structure in both commercial zones. This means if his building were to burn down, the new one would have to conform. In other words, Bogen's as it now stands couldn't be replicated.
"I'd have to put on a flat roof on it. And flat roofs are disasters waiting to happen," Ellenbogen said.
"The planners sit in their offices and with strokes of a pen make changes that have vast impacts on property value and property use," he said. "And generally speaking, real estate is the single largest investment most people make in their entire lives."
Ellenbogen said he's heard no complaints from citizens about the height of his building and wonders what motivated the town's Planning Commission Zoning Rewrite Committee to rewrite his zoning, affecting a business in which he's invested more than $500,000.
"The impact of zoning is so great on property owners that changes should be made very sparingly," he said. "And this is not sparing change. What was the impetus for this? Where was the clamor?"
Ron Rordam, who sits on both the Planning Commission and Town Council, said he's asking the same questions. He said he's heard no evidence of any public concern about too-high buildings in the downtown.
Frances Parsons, a Town Council member who sits on the zoning rewrite committee, said the concern came from a survey the town's Planning Commission took recently.
"We asked people what they liked about Blacksburg and people said they liked its atmosphere and wanted to keep it," she said. "There are no buildings downtown that exceed 60 feet now, we just brought the maximum down to what downtown already is."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. For restaurant owner Bill Ellenbogen, severalby CNBprosed zoning changes to the town's commercial district are more
than semantics; they could cost him money. color. Graphic: Map.