ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Nearly three months later, residents of a Riner subdivision will find out Monday what's to become of a piece of land next door.
Several residents of the Lawrence subdivision spoke before the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors in November and December to oppose Xpress Market Inc.'s request to rezone 5.6 acres along Virginia 8 and beside their neighborhood from agricultural to commercial status.
The supervisors are scheduled to vote on the request at their meeting beginning at 7 p.m. Monday on the third floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg. Also on Monday, the board will consider adding $169,677 to the cost of the health and human services building construction contract to correct design deficiencies in the building's roof, which collapsed in October.
Xpress Market representatives say they want to build a farm supply center and, later, a professional center on the site.
But the Lawrence residents fear the site could become a truck stop because it will sell diesel fuel. And they don't want that next door to their rural subdivision.
On Dec. 11, the Board of Supervisors postponed a decision on the request to get more information from the Virginia Department of Transportation on a turning lane for the project and from the county Public Service Authority on the project's proximity to a public well.
The PSA responded on Dec. 22 with a memo saying the state environmental regulations should eliminate any threat to the well from diesel storage tanks planned for the property. The well is 250 feet from the proposed fuel island, the PSA memo stated, well beyond the state's 50-foot minimum. On Jan. 26, VDOT responded with a letter detailing drainage and road-entrance requirements for the project.
Xpress Market then asked the county to delay a final vote until it could make arrangements to address the VDOT requirements.
On the health and human services building, the Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve three major additions to the contract with Breakell Inc. General Contractor to change the heating and air-conditioning system, roofing materials and - at $142,100 for the largest cost - structural modifications and wind bracing for the domed central portion of the L-shaped building.
In October, just weeks after the roof collapsed, the supervisors abruptly ended the construction management portion of its contract with Kinsey-Shane & Associates, a Salem architectural firm that designed the building. Then In December, the board fired Kinsey-Shane as the architect and brought on The Design Collaborative of Virginia Beach to take over the project.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB