ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610070042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
A fancy garden club in a ritzy neighborhood is just about the last place in the world you'd expect to find controversy brewing.
But that's exactly what has happened over Fairacres, the stately headquarters of the Roanoke Council of Garden Clubs on Avenham Avenue in South Roanoke.
The council, an umbrella group of garden clubs in the Roanoke Valley, has asked the city for permission to rent out Fairacres for fund-raisers "and other similar uses."
But more than 24 surrounding residents of the upscale neighborhood are opposing the request. Some of them recall loud wedding parties that lasted late into the night in recent years.
On Sept. 22, the neighbors filed a petition opposing the council's application for a special exception to its residential-zoning designation. The Board of Zoning Appeals will hear the case Tuesday afternoon.
Fairacres, which is owned by the garden clubs, takes up most of a city block in one of Roanoke's most exclusive neighborhoods. The 3,654 square-foot house occupies about 2.2 acres bordered by Avenham Avenue on the east, Longview Avenue on the west, 27th Street on the north, and 28th Street on the south.
The garden clubs council numbers about 800 members who pay $3 in annual dues to the council. Beyond that $2,400, its principal source of income is an annual fall fund-raiser that brings in about $15,000, said Mary Lou Delaney, council president.
Delaney said she's not sure what the fuss is all about. The council merely wants a permit allowing the Roanoke Valley History Museum to use the property for its annual fund-raiser Dec. 14, she said. Currently the organization is allowed only to have garden club activities there.
"It's a fund-raiser for them, and if they're successful they would give us a donation," she said. "Both of us need money."
But the organization's application is for a "special exception," rather than a mere permit. Approval by the Board of Zoning Appeals means the council could rent Fairacres for other events.
Delaney says that isn't what the garden clubs are after.
"I don't know that we really want to rent it, but of course that would be a great income for us," she said. "Down the road we might need it. Each repair we have to make, it costs a lot of money."
But "we absolutely won't rent it out for parties. This is where we got into trouble 10 years ago," Delaney said.
That's precisely what neighbors are worried about. They worry about regular large parties in their residential neighborhood.
"Our neighborhood is zoned for residential single-family dwellings," said Buford Self, whose property adjoins Fairacres. "If the city wishes to change the zoning of a family neighborhood to promote commercialization of a business venture in its midst, they will be eroding Roanoke neighborhoods as a attractive place for families to move and invest."
If the board approves this application, it could affect uses for other large homes in neighborhoods like Raleigh Court, Self said.
Self said that in recent years neighbors have experienced "a few" loud parties at Fairacres that have drawn traffic into the quiet neighborhood.
If the council needs money, it ought to increase its dues rather than make the residents put up with the noise and traffic that parties would generate, he said.
"We've been very good neighbors. But they're wanting to change the use," Self said.
"We try to be good neighbors," Delaney said. "I think they feel like we're trying to open it to the public and let anybody use it who would want to come in. But the [council's] board would have to approve each application for each event, and most of the groups who would use it are members of garden clubs. I wish the neighbors knew that, that we don't plan to open it up and have something there every weekend."
Self responded: "That's what zoning laws are for, to prevent a private group from deciding what they're willing to allow to come in a neighborhood and what they're not."
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Fairacres, headquarters of theby CNBRoanoke Council of Garden Clubs, is requesting a zoning change so it
can sponsor fund-raisers on the property. color. Map by staff.
color.