ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Developers of a proposed Riner golf course want to use private septic systems to serve the golf course, clubhouse and the first 50 dwellings.
But county officials are concerned that - if the project is approved - it will be difficult to persuade those first 50 landowners to abandon their septic systems and pay to hook on to the county system once all 140 planned dwellings are completed.
Sewer service was just one of several issues discussed by the Montgomery County Planning Commission and the project's developers Wednesday night.
The Planning Commission is to meet again next Wednesday to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors on scheduling a public hearing on the proposed golf course, which would be built on 230 acres of farmland owned by the Jon and Katy Altizer family. County Planning Commission member Joe Draper is a principal with an engineering firm that is helping to develop the project and has to abstain from voting.
Auburn Hills developers say the first part of the development will include the golf course, clubhouse and 50 dwellings. They want to use private septic systems to serve that part of the development.
But Joe Powers, the county's planning director, says "if all else was equal, we'd want them connect to our sewer system," which is near the Riner Volunteer Fire Department.
Riner's current sewer plant handles about 35,000 gallons of sewage a day. A planned sewer plant that will serve mostly the Riner schools campus and existing homes will have a capacity of 100,000 gallons per day. With about 65,000 gallons dedicated to those customers, that leaves 35,000 for future development.
That's enough to handle up to 80 new dwellings in the area, including a proposed town-house development off Five Points Road in Riner.
Other concerns included additional traffic on Virginia 8, maintaining adherence in the county's first use of Planned Unit Development zoning and landscaping that helps maintain the rural character and protect surrounding properties that are in an agricultural and forestal district.
Powers, the planning director, said it is important to remember the county has never dealt with a Planned Unit Development before, aside from Patton's Grant, a proposed retirement community proposal that straddled the county and northern Blacksburg but was withdrawn in 1995
"That's part of our problem. We're all new on this," Powers said.
Wednesday, the commissioners let the developers know they needed to come back next week armed with detailed answers to many questions. By law the commission must make a recommendation to the county Board of Supervisors by the end of March.
The golf course plans come 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 friend and local businessman 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.
Joe Gorman, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, attended the meeting and had concerns about possible groundwater contamination. "All of the water for the citizens to drink out there is going to be coming out of the ground. Every drop of it," he said.
Others have expressed doubt there is enough groundwater to irrigate the golf course without affecting the water supply for residents.
Ed Green, vice chairman of the commission, reminded the developers that planned unit developments carry strict adherence to a master plan.
PUD zoning "specifies that with the master plan, the details have to include lot layout and the number and types of dwelling units in each phase," Green said. "I think you need something in concrete," instead of suggesting things might move.
But Powers and the developers said PUD zoning does allow for flexibility for minor changes. For example, the developers said they would want to change a road's path if an old, large oak tree stood in its path.
The developers were told to come to next week's meeting with copies of a karst terrain study and a Virginia Department of Transportation traffic generation study that was more detailed than a short letter from local Resident Engineer Dan Brugh which said 127 vehicles would be exiting the golf course entrance and 75 would be leaving at peak traffic hours.
Zoning Administrator Jeff Scott said more information was needed about daily traffic and how it would affect Virginia 8, especially looking at the need for a turn lane.
The developers also were told they would need to file an amended application after they said a planned eighth phase - for an executive office and residential center on 15 acres of land - was being removed from the proposal.
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