ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 14, 1996 TAG: 9611140034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has approved a conservation agreement that university President Paul Torgersen offered to Montgomery County as an olive branch at the height of the spring "smart" road debate.
In June, a 4-to-3 vote by the county Board of Supervisors gave state highway officials the go-ahead to seek condemnation of land in the Ellett Valley area for the smart road. The land was in a protected conservation zone call an agricultural and forestal district.
The supervisors made that decision - and removed one of the last stumbling blocks to the road - without considering a May offer from Torgersen to treat 140 acres on Price Mountain as a conservation area in return for the land taken by the smart road right of way.
Some supervisors and smart road opponents saw the offer as meaningless, because the land Tech is offering - used for forestry research - is almost a de facto conservation area now. With plans for a major housing development on the eastern end of Price Mountain, though, others see merit in an offer to keep land on the western end of the mountain as open, undeveloped space.
In July, the supervisors postponed whether to accept Tech's offer, suggesting county staff work with Tech officials to hammer out an agreement.
Monday, the Board of Visitors authorized an agreement with the county that places 140 acres of land known as the Fishburn tract in a conservation easement with terms similar to those that govern agricultural and forestal districts.
"It's an interesting move and I think it would be beneficial for the county citizens," said Henry Jablonski, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors have not discussed the matter since July, Jablonski said, and he wasn't sure whether Tech's move this week will require any county action to make the agreement official.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB