ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070032
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County's Planning Department has scheduled four community meetings later this month to gather comments on the revision of the zoning ordinance.
The county's zoning ordinance contains the local laws that govern the use of land in the areas outside Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
The county first adopted its zoning ordinance in 1969 and has heavily amended it, but the document has not undergone an extensive updating. During the last 28 years, amendments have added 12 zoning districts to the original seven, and the ordinance has grown from 33 pages to 125.
Calls to rewrite the document have increased in the last year or so, as the county wrestles with growing pains evident by new housing and business developments in rural Riner and plans to build hundreds of homes on Price Mountain, the ridge separating Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
The Planning Commission hopes to send the new zoning ordinance to the Board of Supervisors for approval by the end of this year. Then, the commissioners will turn their attention to updating the county's comprehensive plan. That document, which maps out the blueprint of how the county should grow in the future, was last updated in 1990.
County officials and representatives of the consulting team that is working on the ordinance - Bruce Drenning & Associates and Herd Planning and Design - will be at the meetings. The consultants will describe issues that have been identified so far and will present strategies for revising the ordinance. The public will then be asked for comments and suggestions.
The meetings, each of which begins at 7 p.m., are as follows:
Blacksburg area, Feb. 26, Blacksburg Recreation Center, Patrick Henry Drive.
Prices Fork area, Feb. 26, Kipps Elementary School cafeteria.
Shawsville area, Feb. 27, Shawsville High School auditorium.
Riner area, Feb. 27, Auburn High School auditorium.
The Friends of Riner will not meet as scheduled on Feb. 11. Instead, the organization is asking its members to attend the Feb. 27 meeting.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB