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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995                   TAG: 9511130027
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

RESIDENTIAL REZONING SOUGHT NEAR ROCK ROAD

Ben Harris has filed two rezoning requests totalling 195 acres and Fred Franklin has requested the rezoning of 10 acres, according to documents filed with the Montgomery County Planning Department. The developers have not yet filed a detailed subdivision plan.

Their long-range development plan calls for 150 homes on large lots, said Michael Gay, an engineer working for Harris and Franklin. The wooded area is surrounded by the Radford city line on three sides and is less than one mile west of the intersection of Tyler Avenue and Rock Road. It is within a special zoning district created by the city and Montgomery County to handle growth expected along the Virginia 177 corridor in conjunction with the building of a new Radford Community Hospital nearby.

Montgomery County and Radford planners now are reviewing the proposals together. Their next step will be to take the proposals before the city and county planning commissions at a public hearing this winter.

Earlier this week, the county Public Service Authority discussed providing sewer service to the proposed development. The authority, made up of the same seven men who sit on the Board of Supervisors, suggested the county may have to negotiate a new contract with the Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Authority to serve the proposed subdivision from Pulaski County.

That's because even though the county has a contract reserving 250,000 gallons per day of sewer service for the Virginia 177 corridor, the subdivision proposal sits just outside the boundaries of the contract's service area.