ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on October 18, 1996.
A story Thursday about the proposed rezoning of Oakey Field in Salem
incorrectly stated that Salem owns land in Roanoke County's Green Hill
Park. Also, the name of Dr. Bob Paine - who spoke to the Salem Planning
Commission on the Oakey Field rezoning - was misspelled.
Despite protests from some residents and a member of the Salem Planning Commission, the commission on Wednesday voted 3-1 to recommend the rezoning of Oakey Field off East Main Street to allow the city to sell about 6 acres to the developers of a used-car lot.
City Council must approve the commission's recommendation before the rezoning can take effect. Council will consider the request at its Oct. 28 meeting.
City Council has expressed interest in a proposal from a father-son partnership that wants to turn the field into a high-inventory, no-haggle, used-car dealership. Paul and Gary Duncan, who have offered more than $345,000 for the property, estimate the city could reap more than $400,000 in taxes and licensing fees after the first three years of business.
But residents whose children use the softball field and soccer/football practice field say the field gets too much use for the city to sell it.
Municipal tennis courts that adjoin the fields are not part of the proposed sale.
"Any time you take a playing area away from kids, everyone loses," said Salem resident Tim Van Riper, whose two children use the field.
Bob Payne said he would hate to see the city give up another green space to commercial development - especially another car lot on East Main Street, which is lined by about eight new- and used-car dealerships between Virginia 419 and Lynchburg Turnpike.
"I don't think we need wall-to-wall used-car lots," Payne said.
Planning Commission member David Robbins also spoke out against the rezoning and afterward voted against a recommendation to approve it.
"When we lose enough green space in the city, people are not going to want to live here," he said.
Oakey Field once was the city's main center for recreation-league sports. But a large chunk of the land was sold to Home Shopping Network in 1987 and turned into a parking lot next to the company's East Main Street warehouse and distribution center.
Since that sale, Salem Planning Director Joe Yates said the city has more than doubled its available land for recreation-league sports.
And the city is looking into making more fields available if Oakey Field is sold.
City Council has discussed the possibility of an agreement with Roanoke County to put a softball field on some Salem-owned property in Green Hill Park. Or the city could use flood-plain property along Mill Lane in West Salem, Yates said.
The city has an informal agreement with General Electric to use a field next to the company's plant on Virginia 419. And the city is hoping to make that agreement long-term, Assistant City Manager Forest Jones said.
"They're going to look at all their options," he said of City Council.
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