ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 17, 1996 TAG: 9607170024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
One month after Montgomery County's big "smart" road approval, a Virginia Tech offer remains on the table to earmark land on Price Mountain as open space to offset Ellett Valley acreage that will be lost to the highway.
Tech President Paul Torgersen made the offer in a May 28 letter to Henry Jablonski, chairman of the supervisors.
Torgersen touted the offer of an acre-for-acre exchange as a "win/win solution" to concerns about losing 140 acres of protected agricultural and forestal district land to the smart road right of way.
Smart road opponents called Torgersen's proposal a meaningless, disingenuous offer to protect land that was already being conserved.
Though the request to remove land from the conservation district came from the Virginia Department of Transportation, Tech has been a key player in the smart road debate because it would be conducting the research on the road. The university has promoted the smart road, a planned six-mile link between southern Blacksburg and Interstate 81, as a proving ground for new transportation technology.
But the Montgomery supervisors didn't discuss Torgersen's offer in any detail before voting 4-3 on June 17 to approve VDOT's request to seek condemnation of the protected land.
"We made the offer to the county Board of Supervisors and that's as far as it went," said Larry Hincker, Virginia Tech's spokesman. "Nobody ever contacted us further."
Given the supervisors' vote to approve, would Tech still set aside the land on Price Mountain?
"The offer is still on the table and we certainly wouldn't renege [but] we had assumed they weren't going to take us up on it," Hincker said.
Jablonski said the matter may be up for discussion at Monday's board meeting.
"The board never dealt with it ... I think we need to answer that letter," he said.
Jablonski said he mentioned the offer before the June 17 vote, but that's as far as the discussion went. He said it appears the supervisors chose not to discuss the offer further then and it didn't play into their decision on how to vote on VDOT's request.
Tech owns about 1,100 acres on Price Mountain. It is primarily used for forestry research, Hincker said.
Whether the land would officially enter the agricultural and forestal district program or simply be treated by Tech as such was never discussed, Hincker said. "It is essentially almost de facto AFD right now. ... It would be perfectly in line with the AFD concept," he said.
Open space on Price Mountain - the dominant ridge between Blacksburg and Christiansburg - has been a key issue as the county considered William H. Price's request to rezone from agricultural status hundreds of acres to eventually build a similar number of homes, duplexes and town houses.
On July 8, the supervisors voted 4-2 to approve a scaled-back request from Price, after he withdrew his requests to be able to build town houses on 107 acres and duplexes on 30 acres. The supervisors rezoned 148 acres on the Blacksburg side of the mountain to a residential status for single-family homes and 251 acres to a residential status that allows single-family homes and duplexes. The two parcels total 400 acres, with a maximum of 324 dwelling units and at least 80 acres of open space.
Jablonski said the supervisors could decide to delay making a decision on Tech's offer until after Price resubmits for review the two parcels that he withdrew.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board is expected to vote on the specific route and basic design of the smart road at its Aug. 15 meeting. If the plans are approved, VDOT would immediately begin buying land needed for the right of way.
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