ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 26, 1997 TAG: 9703260030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN THE ROANOKE TIMES
As part of last year's "smart" road debate, Tech offered to put 140 acres on Price Mountain in a conservation easement for 10 years. The county supervisors are still unsure what to make of the offer.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors has again delayed approving an offer from Virginia Tech to keep land it own< s near Price Mountain as open space.
The offer of a conservation agreement for 140 acres has been on the table since last May, when university President Paul Torgersen extended it as an olive branch at the height of last spring's "smart" road debate.
The supervisors removed the acceptance from its consent agenda Monday, and voted to table any action until after the Planning Commission has the opportunity to review the proposal and make comments.
Last June, a 4-3 vote by the supervisors gave state highway officials the go ahead to seek condemnation of land in the Ellett Valley area for the smart road. Approximately 140 acres were in a protected conservation zone called an agricultural and forestal district. Tech offered to put land it owned on Price Mountain in a conservation area in return for the land taken by the smart road.
The smart road is a roughly two-mile test facility that is part of a six-mile, $103 million route from Blacksburg to Interstate 81; it's been dubbed the smart road for the intelligent transportation systems testing that will occur there. Construction of the $27 million test bed of the road should begin in June. The first 1.7 miles, costing $14.5 million, should be finished in two years. The second phase of the project will be construction of a huge bridge spanning Wilson Creek.
The supervisors took their smart road vote - and removed one of the last stumbling blocks to the road - without considering Torgersen's offer.
Last November, Tech's Board of Visitors authorized an agreement with the county that places 140 acres of land known as the Fishburn tract in a conservation easement with terms similar to those that govern agricultural and forestal districts.
The easement is for 10 years. A proposed agreement says that although the easement will benefit the public by providing open space, it doesn't "convey a right to the public of access to or use of" the land. Tech will retain an exclusive right to access and use, with the county being allowed to enter the property from time to time for inspection and to enforce the easement.
When the offer was first made last spring, some supervisors and smart road opponents saw it as meaningless, because the land Tech is offering - used for forestry research - is almost a de facto conservation area now. With plans for a major housing development on the eastern end of Price Mountain, though, others see merit in an offer to keep land on the western slope of the mountain as open, undeveloped space.
William Price gained county approval in July to rezone 400 acres on Price Mountain for up to 324 homes and duplexes.
The issue now goes to the county Planning Commission for its review and recommendation to the supervisors.
Joe Powers, county planning director, said the commission will consider the issue at its next meeting on April 16 and will then send comments back to the supervisors in time for its meeting on April 28.
Powers said the Tech proposal is somewhat unusual in that a typical conservation easement is made in perpetuity, rather than for a limited time such as 10 years. "If they're talking about making up for land lost to smart highway, that is land lost permanently," said Powers.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Map by RT.by CNB