
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308050261
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLANNERS OK HOTEL PROJECT AFTER CITY PROMISES PLANTS

The Roanoke Planning Commission voted Wednesday to approve the plan for the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center project - but not until the commission was assured that the city will provide landscaping along the Jefferson Street side of the complex.

Approval also was withheld until the commissioners were told that the city planning staff will have a chance to review the comprehensive development plan before the developers seek bids on the $42 million project.

Commission Chairman Charles Price said he was concerned that the plan did not show any landscaping along the side of the conference center.

"Is there any way to soften that?" Price asked.

David Van Blaricom, project manager for Faison and Associates, said the developers expected the city to provide the Jefferson Street landscaping because it had done so for the Dominion Tower project.

Van Blaricom said the city will own the conference center, another reason the developers expected the city to landscape along Jefferson.

Van Blaricom and three architects briefed the commission on the development plan and the extensive landscaping elsewhere in the project. The plan is similar to that proposed earlier but is more detailed.

Price voiced reservations about approving the plan before the Jefferson Street landscaping and other issues were resolved.

Commissioner John Bradshaw suggested the plan could be approved subject to further review by the planning staff.

But Price said that would, in effect, constitute approval and make any later action by the commission meaningless.

At that point, John Marlles, the city's chief of community planning, said the city will provide the Jefferson Street landscaping.

"The city is committed to the landscaping, and it will be there," Marlles said.

Marlles said the city and the developers are on a "fast track" to get the plan approved so the project can be bid. The plan needed to be approved quickly, he said.

The commission approved the plan and asked the planning staff to review further details.

The architects said the hotel and conference center will have 470 parking spaces, about the same number as the old hotel. They said overflow parking can be handled in the Dominion Tower parking garage and the Roanoke Civic Center parking lot.

The hotel will have two ballrooms - one that contains 5,000 square feet and another with 15,000 square feet. The large ballroom will accommodate 1,500 people, Van Blaricom said.

by CNB