ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701170051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
The issue of wastewater treatment is the first hazard encountered by the proposed Auburn Hills Golf Course, a resort and residential development proposed on the site of a Riner dairy farm.
In its first round of regulatory oversight, the Montgomery County Planning Commission tabled the Auburn Hills plan Wednesday, in effect giving the project the governmental equivalent of a golfer's mulligan, or second try.
Questions over how the 230-acre development - designed to eventually include an 18-hole course, 140 homes, a clubhouse, restaurant and conference center - would handle sewage in an area that has limited public treatment facilities prompted the commission to send Auburn Hills back to the first tee.
Over the next month, the developers were asked to come up with more specific information about how to handle wastewater discharge from Auburn Hills' residences, which will be a combination of town homes and detached dwellings.
The planners will reconsider Auburn Hills' rezoning request Feb. 19. By law the commission must make a recommendation to the county Board of Supervisors by the end of March.
"I think it can be worked out. It's going to take some time," said Commissioner Harry Neumann.
Auburn Hills' plan was to build the golf course, a clubhouse and some of the residences with drain and septic fields to treat wastewater. When a threshold of 40,000 gallons per day is reached, the development would have to either hook into a county public treatment facility or build its own on-site plant.
The Montgomery County Public Service Authority is expanding its wastewater treatment facilities near Riner, but even a larger facility won't be able to handle Auburn Hills' needs.
It's likely the development will have to build its own unit, an expense that could restrain Auburn Hills' ability to grow, according to Algie M. Pulley Jr., a golf course architect who designed the project.
Growth in Riner is already affecting water quality. Recent state tests of wells near overburdened drain fields in the area have turned up evidence of human waste contamination, said acting County Engineer Jerry Mabry.
"We already have an existing capacity problem. We should limit the number of septic fields out there," Mabry added.
The decision of how to handle wastewater at Auburn Hills is also an "absolutely critical point" because of the influence it will have on the development of adjacent properties in Riner, county Zoning Administrator Jeff Scott said.
Generally, members of the Planning Commission who voiced an opinion at Wednesday meeting complimented Auburn Hills' concept for developing the Altizer dairy farm without jarring the ambiance of this traditionally agricultural region of Montgomery County.
And they said providing public water to the site won't be a problem. But they said they need more details on how Auburn Hills will handle wastewater.
Pulley agreed to come back with a more specific plan next month.
If approved, Auburn Hills' rezoning request will be the county's first to utilize a new Planned Unit Development zoning classification, a provision that covers developments with a mixed uses.
Planning Commission member Joe Draper abstained from voting on the Auburn Hills plan at the meeting. His engineering firm, Draper Aden Associates, is working for the Auburn Hills corporation on the project.
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