ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 10, 1996 TAG: 9612100070
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Reporter's Notebook
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER
The Toms Creek Basin is Blacksburg's last frontier.
Blacksburg residents and leaders apparently see in its six square miles a chance to correct development mistakes; to do it right this time.
Not that Blacksburg has done wrong, but there are streets on which rundown rental homes with indoor furniture outdoors can be seen smack up against well-maintained historic houses.
At best, it's occasionally eclectic. At worst, it's shortsighted growth.
To control growth in the basin, town leaders appointed a committee, held six community meetings and came up with a plan that included Rural Residential 1, a zoning category that tries to assure the quality of Toms Creek's water, preserve its open space and natural beauty and encourage development plans that do the same.
Since the March rezoning of the basin, Town Council has heard two requests to increase the housing density on land there.
One was approved. The second was deferred last month and is expected to be voted on tonight at council's 7:30 meeting in the Municipal Building, 300 South Main St.
The second request is from Jim Lucas, who for two years has been trying to build Brookfield Village, a 56-home community, on 29 acres of the basin.
If you divide the homes by the acres it comes to about 1.9 homes per acre, which is the problem. The town recommends one home per acre for most of the basin.
Lucas is asking Town Council to rezone the land from RR-1 to Rural Residential 2, which allows up to two units per acre.
The units will average 1,800 to 2,000 square feet of floor space. The average cost will be about $160,000.
Both RR-1 and RR-2 allow some businesses. Commercial use for RR-1 requires a special-use permit, which requires a public hearing. Commercial use under RR-2 is addressed as part of the rezoning request.
The current one home per acre density is the same as allowed under the old agriculture zoning ordinance. The difference is in the design.
In an effort to keep as much open space as possible, the RR-1 zoning encourages building Toms Creek Basin homes in clusters. It also requires half the property remain open space, with a 50-foot buffer surrounding any development.
RR-2 zoning would allow Lucas up to two units per acre, depending on how he addresses the town's 14 criteria for deciding on the rezoning.
Lucas has addressed some of those, including:
* A transfer of development rights. He would give up the right to build on 24 acres of a 36-acre tract, located about one-half mile north on the U.S. 460 bypass from the proposed Brookfield Village site. This would be done so Lucas can build more homes per acre at Brookfield. It means only 12 of the 36 acres on the northern site would ever be built upon and preserves more open space.
* Building a private recreation area for the community.
* Donating 14.8 acres of public recreational space, including walking and bike trails to the town.
* Providing a sewer system for the development.
* Setting architectural standards for the development.
Lucas says he needs to build the extra homes to make a reasonable profit.
Laying a sewer system for this community is more expensive than septic tanks. Adding curbs and gutters, as he plans, also comes at a price. Lucas also plans to relocate Redbud Road to focus traffic at one spot, bringing it down Toms Creek Road toward U.S. 460 opposite the as-yet-unbuilt Spring Valley Road.
If his rezoning request is denied, Lucas said, he's not sure Brookfield Village will be built. If he decides to build at the lower density, it would be without the sewer system, without the curbs and gutters and without the relocated road; some of the amenities Lucas says makes Brookfield Village a quality development.
And that, Lucas says, is the issue: the basin will be developed, it's just a matter of when and how.
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