Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993 TAG: 9307270236
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
But residents of a Bedford County subdivision adjacent to his proposed baseball complex in Forest do not want it anyway.
Monday night, nearly 100 residents from the Blumont Estates neighborhood protested Adler's revised plan at a public hearing before a joint meeting of the Bedford County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission.
Adler is asking for approval from the county to develop the complex on 30 acres off U.S. 221 just behind Lane Pontiac. The ball fields would be used mostly by the Lynchburg Little League.
Originally, Adler hoped to extend what is now a dead-end road through the neighborhood as the complex's main entrance.
Opponents to the plan said extending the road would dramatically increase traffic through Blumont Estates, create safety problems and destroy the neighborhood's serenity. They also had concerns about increased noise and the lights from the complex, and potential vandalism.
Monday, Adler presented a revamped plan that would not use the road through the subdivision as an entrance. Instead, a gravel road that now runs to the back of the proposed site would be developed, he said.
Adler also proposed changes to the layout of the ball fields and adjustments to the lights to reduce glare from the park.
In addition, he agreed to create a buffer of trees between the complex and the neighborhood, and he said security guards would be hired, if necessary.
"We're bending over backwards to make those concessions," he said. Adler, a Lynchburg architect, is representing the Lynchburg group that wants to develop the complex. He will not receive any profit from the project.
Jim McQuade, who owns the land and hopes to sell it to the Little League group, supported Adler at Monday's public hearing. He said he has been shocked by the neighborhood opposition.
"How could they have hoped for anything better."
He said the property is a prime spot for an industry, with direct access to a railroad spur. Already, he said he has refused offers to sell to a cement company and a scrap yard.
"I've tried to be a good neighbor," he said.
Blumont residents were happy that Adler had dropped his plan to use their neighborhood as an access into the complex, but otherwise they continued to oppose the plan for many of the same reasons as before.
Primarily, they said the noise and lights would be a nuisance. Many said they had lived near a baseball complex before and they said those disturbances should not be underestimated.
As one resident, Curt Holland, put it: "Ballparks don't make good neighbors and we don't want them in our neighborhood."
The Planning Commission will make a recommendation to the supervisors, who likely will vote on the project at its next meeting in August.
by CNB