ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 21, 1997 TAG: 9702210044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors should reject a development group's plans to build 20 town houses in Riner, the Planning Commission ruled Wednesday.
In a 5-to-4 vote, the commissioners gave the thumbs-down to the Riner Group's proposed development, located on Five Points Road off Virginia 8 near Auburn High School.
The county Board of Supervisors will consider the project Monday.
Ed Green, who was absent Jan. 27 when the commission deadlocked, was the swing vote. Green, the commission's vice chairman, joined Kitty Brennan, Mike Ewing, M.L. Wells and Harry Neumann in recommending the town houses be turned down.
The Riner Group's partners, developers Carl McNeil and Randy Gardner and lumber company president John Turman, want to rezone 3.1 acres and get a special-use permit to build the town houses. The property is adjacent to the Lawrence subdivision, which McNeil and Gardner also developed, and also to Turman's Xpress Market property, which the county rezoned for commercial use last year amid protests.
At a public hearing last month, six speakers complained that the town houses would clash with the rural character of Riner, would violate the county's comprehensive plan and would fly in the face of a 1991 zoning compatibility chart. Some Riner residents see the town houses as just the latest intrusion on their previously quiet, rural atmosphere. The town houses will be about a mile from a proposed 215-acre golf course and residential development that could include up to 140 homes.
The developers' efforts to allay concerns about traffic, fire protection and other matters fell short with the commissioners, who did commend them for working hard to remedy many of the concerns. But the chief issue among some of the commissioners was an intersection deemed unsuitable.
"Five Points Road joins Virginia 8 at an angle and it really needs to be straightened out so that it would come in perpendicular," Planning Director Joe Powers said Thursday. But Powers said straightening it would mean taking land from other property owners.
Ray Alcorn, who seconded Joe Draper's unsuccessful motion to recommend approval of the project, cast a warning before the vote.
"I don't see how we can turn it down," Alcorn said. While conceding the road intersection was a problem, Alcorn said the town houses met the criteria for rural expansion area: a community focus and available water and sewer. "If we don't want Riner to grow, then there never should have been public utilities put out there," Alcorn said. "To me, this goes right along with the Comprehensive Plan."
The county has expressed a desire to "cluster the growth where utilities are," Alcorn said. He said he couldn't in good faith vote against the Riner Group's plan and perhaps later approve a 65-acre rezoning for a subdivision.
"It would be open to challenge, I would think, if we did not approve the project."
Margaret Smith, a member of the Friends of Riner, also suggested a legal challenge if the project is approved. The Friends of Riner formed last year as a united voice when residents saw a development threat to the very nature of their community and little government representation of their concerns.
Smith showed slides she said demonstrated the road was unsuitable now for two lanes of traffic to pass. She said approving the project would represent spot zoning - putting the highest level of zoning in the middle of farmland and residential areas. The Riner Group's requested zoning category would be more suitable for an urban expansion area, she said.
She also said there was no evidence of the need for the town houses and worried there was inadequate parking for visitors.
Charlie Bowles, a Riner resident, said he counted 81 cars he passed going in the opposite direction on his way to the evening meeting.
"Until something's done with Route 8 and something's done with the planning of Riner, I don't want to see the town houses," Bowles said. "We want to really have the rural area."
Blaine Kessee of Gay Engineering, the agent for the project, said the plan had been modified since the public hearing to address many concerns. A planned Public Service Authority lot that was going to be used as a third well for Riner has been removed since the Health Department ruled the site unsuitable. That means the lot will be added to unused space, bringing the total to 52 percent open space.
And, Kessee said, town houses were moved to provide paved access to the rear of three town houses. And three fire hydrants will be added, and an 8-inch water line used if necessary. All three of those adjustments meet the concerns that Jay Altizer, chief of the Riner Volunteer Fire Department, had outlined.
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