ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
THE PROJECT will include a go kart track, slides, and a wave pool at Smith Mountain Lake.
A developer plans to build a water park with a wave pool, water slides and a boat pond at Smith Mountain Lake.
The park, to be called "Waterworld," will be located off Virginia 122 in Westlake Corner, the hub of commercial development at the lake, according to a site plan filed in January with the Franklin County Planning Department. The site is about a half-mile from the intersection of 122 and Virginia 616.
The project will include a go kart track, which will be built first, and should be open sometime this year, a county planner said. Plans call for the water park to be completed in 1998 or later.
The developer, Craig Caron, could not be reached for comment Monday. An Amherst phone number he listed on the site plan has been disconnected.
County Planning Director Tim Krawczel said he assumes the development is a go. Because the 11.8-acre site was zoned for commercial use in the 1980s, Caron will not have to seek rezoning or a special use permit.
Caron needs only administrative approval of the site plan and related construction and road permits, Krawczel said.
The water park development comes on the heels of the approval of the first waterfront hotel at the lake, as well as the continuing commercial expansion of the Westlake Corner area.
Franklin County Supervisor Don Riddle said he hoped the lake - whose residents are currently embroiled in a debate over its needs and goals - doesn't turn into a "bunch of Coney Islands."
Riddle, who represents the Westlake Corner area, said he didn't know much about the Waterworld project, but he did wonder where the park will get the amount of water it will require for operation.
There is no public water and sewer on the Franklin County side of the lake, and only a minimal amount of infrastructure on the Bedford County side.
Lake residents and business owners are served by wells, septic tanks and septic fields.
Jeanine Michealsen, the executive director of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce/Partnership, said the water park will fill a niche.
"It's going to help tourism big time," she said. "It will bring more of a family environment to the lake."
Ron Willard, the name most associated with lake development, wasn't as gung-ho about the project. Willard's office building is a stone's throw from the water park site.
He said he's concerned about the noise that the go kart track will generate.
Jim Spitz, the president of the Smith Mountain Lake Association, said he's heard no one voice their opinion about the project, and his organization hasn't discussed the matter as a group.
Franklin County planners also said that they've received no letters or phone calls about it.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff. color.by CNB