ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140058
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RINER
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
After nearly five years of planning, a proposal for an upscale, 18-hole golf course and residential development will be unveiled tonight by developers.
Auburn Hills Golf Club LLC filed requests last week for a rezoning and a special-use permit on 230 acres owned by Jon and Katy Altizer about one mile northwest of Riner.
The filing came just days after the land's protected status in a county agricultural and forestal district ended.
Plans for the phased development - to include a clubhouse, 140 residences, a conference center and an overnight lodge - will be discussed at a meeting at 7 tonight at the Riner Volunteer Fire Department on Virginia 8. Sponsored by the community group Friends of Riner, the meeting will feature golf course designer Algie M. Pulley Jr. of California, and G. Ashton Carlton Jr. of Manassas.
Then, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Montgomery County Planning Commission will take up the official golf course rezoning for the first time. That will kick off a review that should take the matter to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing and decision later this winter or spring. The commission meets in room 327 in the Montgomery County Courthouse.
The golf course plans have been the talk of Riner for months, coming on the heels of accelerated residential development, a proposal for a set of town houses and plans for a new elementary school, among other indicators of growing development pressure on the former dairy-farming community.
The Altizers formed Auburn Hills Inc. last year with Gary Webb and lawyer Ralph Cummings. Plans call for construction to begin in June on the initial nine holes. They are expected to be ready for play in June 1998. Work on the second nine holes would start in July, with the aim that golfers could use the entire 18-hole course by July 1998. Work on a clubhouse also would start in June with targeted opening in April 1998.
The residential development plans call for 30 single-family detached home sites, 30 attached villa sites near the clubhouse and 80 more isolated attached villa units built in two phases. Though lot sales could start as early as July, the residential development would not proceed until a sewer system is available for the development.
Sewer and water should be two of the major issues up for discussion as the proposal makes its way through the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Riner has small water and sewer systems that are being expanded to serve the new elementary school. While there may be sufficient water capacity, there likely will be insufficient capacity to provide sewer service for the golf course development, according to a study by Draper Aden Associates. The Blacksburg engineering firm has outlined several possible solutions for the sewage issue.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: map showing proposed golf course site. color STAFFby CNB