ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
The public can get its first look at what's been one of the most controversial development plans in the Roanoke Valley at a meeting scheduled tonight.
Developer Len Boone is proposing to build 1,100 homes on what now is a 315-acre field where cattle graze along the Blue Ridge Parkway. He still needs approval from the parkway and Roanoke County.
When Boone first floated the idea in 1991, parkway lovers and others decried the spoiling of one of the last open spaces remaining along the stretch of the scenic highway that runs through the valley.
The hubbub eventually died down, and Boone began negotiating with parkway and county officials on how he could still develop the land while maintaining the rural character of the landscape.
Carlton Abbott, a renowned Williamsburg architect whose father was one of the chief parkway planners, was called in to help and offered creative design tips.
Boone originally had planned a traditional subdivision design. But now, he said, he's "become a believer."
The result is a project called "Wilshire," which will be presented in detail tonight, starting at 7, at the Brambleton Center (the former county Administration Building), across from Cave Spring Corners. Abbott, Boone, and parkway and county officials will give presentations.
The subdivision, to be built over two decades, would preserve the most scenic view that parkway travelers would see. That land would be transferred to the parkway or a trust for preservation.
Although some houses still would be visible, the plan calls for architectural designs and building materials - right down to the mailboxes and garage doors - that blend with the rural setting.
Such guidelines become less strict the farther homes are from the parkway. Wilshire also would contain a 5.5 commercial tract along Cotton Hill Road.
Parkway and county officials are mostly pleased with the plan. Some Roanoke Valley residents aren't, however. In response to a query about Wilshire in a September story in The Roanoke Times, most of the 30 callers opposed any kind of development along the parkway.
"Development ought to stay away from the parkway," one man said. "That wasn't the reason it was built, and I was one of the people who built it."
"We need to decide once and for all that we are going to protect the parkway," another caller said.
And another: "What's wrong with leaving the land the same? Every time they see a patch of green, they get to put a home on it."
The Roanoke County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing March 5 on Wilshire. If the panel recommends approval, the proposal could go before the Board of Supervisors on March 26.
Meanwhile, the Blue Ridge Parkway is finishing an environmental assessment of a proposal to run water and sewer lines for Wilshire under the federally owned highway. The parkway must grant an easement before the lines, and ultimately the subdivision, are built.
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