Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990 TAG: 9006130378
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Council members passed a resolution, 6-1, stating that proposals for an intersection at South Main Street and Airport Road - which would have demolished several homes and historic houses - were "unacceptable."
Soon after, the room again filled with applause when council member Michael Chandler announced that a landowner in the neighborhood intends to deed her property to the town as permanent open space.
Chandler said he received a call Tuesday afternoon from Kate Estes Hoge, who owns approximately 85 acres in the town adjacent to the golf course. The proposed road extension would have cut through much of Hoge's farm.
"It goes without saying that this is a truly generous offer," he said. "She wants to contract with us, and I hope the town agrees."
Council went into closed session after the meeting to discuss possible acquisition of an open space or conservation easement, presumably Hoge's offer of land.
Anne Holberton and her sister, Frances Cofer, both of whose homes were threatened by the proposed intersection, were relieved by the outcome.
"I just feel like a whole ton has been lifted off me," Holberton said.
She said she spoke recently with Hoge, who was not at the meeting. "She wanted to have cows stay up there so that children could see what clean air and open space are all about. More than anything, she wanted something left that would stay the same, a legacy."
Chandler, in voting against the resolution, said any extension of Patrick Henry Road beyond Harding Avenue was unnecessary.
The resolution asks the Virginia Department of Transportation to study the feasibility of linking Patrick Henry Road, which ends at Harding Avenue, to Clay Street instead of Airport Road.
That raised concerns among several citizens at the meeting who told council that crosstown traffic would impede rather than ease traffic flow downtown.
"The bad news is you might be going through part of a Catholic church," said Dan Fleming. He, too, received applause at his suggestion to kill the Patrick Henry Drive proposal altogether.
The northern part of the project - a four-lane extension at the other end of Patrick Henry Drive from North Main Street to Toms Creek Road with a bicycle lane and sidewalk - is still the town's fourth priority for state funding.
But some citizens told council they were concerned that that part of the project would increase traffic in their neighborhood, eliminate street parking and in some cases block them from their own driveways.
Mayor Roger Hedgepeth said that although council did not want to destroy historic districts or existing neighborhoods, one of its goals was to improve transportation.
Town officials have discussed the so-called Patrick Henry "loop" for almost 40 years, but public opposition kept the project at bay.
Recently, however, the highway department estimated that traffic increases in the next 20 years would push Main Street beyond capacity.
The town is seeking funding in the department's six-year funding cycle for the South Main Street widening, Glade Road improvements and the Hubbard Street/Southgate connector road.
by CNB