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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 4, 1993                   TAG: 9311050314
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV15   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY BOARD TO DEAL WITH DEVELOPMENT VS. PRESERVATION

With its membership assured to be unchanged for at least another two years, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will meet tonight at the county courthouse to consider a controversial planning document designed to encourage a balance between development and preservation of the county's rural areas.

Supervisors Joe Stewart of Elliston, a board member since 1980, and Henry Jablonski of Christiansburg, first elected in 1981, narrowly won re-election Tuesday. Supervisor Jim Moore of Blacksburg was unopposed for his second term.

The board rescheduled its regular Monday meeting to tonight because of a scheduling conflict.

Known as the open-space initiative during two years of community meetings and study, the plan is now called the ``Conservation and Development'' amendment to the county's 1990 comprehensive plan.

Two of the seven supervisors have made public statements on it: Stewart, one of the county's major landowners, is against it, and Supervisor Joe Gorman of Blacksburg in its favor.

At a September public hearing, opposition came from landowners, many from the Riner area, who worried that the plan could infringe on their property rights or give people the impression that private land is open to public use.

In an attempt to allay those fears, the Montgomery Planning Commission last month changed the plan's name and added a cover letter stressing that it involves voluntary measures, for the most part, to preserve open space. The commission recommended 4-1 that the supervisors adopt the plan. Three members missed the meeting and a fourth abstained from voting.

The Board of Supervisors may also enact a zoning ordinance amendment that would allow police firing ranges, police and fire stations and rescue squad buildings in agriculturally zoned areas, provided the shooting ranges do not operate between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

And the supervisors will hear a report from a Blacksburg architecture firm on repairs needed to the roof of the courthouse. A brick fell from the fourth floor exterior of the north side of the 1979 building during an inspection in early September. Officials closed the sidewalk along East Main Street as a precaution after that, but say there is no danger to the public.

by CNB