ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 18, 1997 TAG: 9704180039
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN THE ROANOKE TIMES
Calling it more trouble than help of late, the Montgomery County Planning Commission on Wednesday repealed its zoning compatibility chart, originally designed to help the group make good growth decisions for the county.
The chart, adopted in 1991, was used to help the commission be consistent when considering rezoning requests and amendments to the comprehensive plan map.
There are five general land-use designations for those areas of the county for which no detailed area plan has been prepared: urban expansion; rural expansion; rural; agricultural; and conservation. The chart lists the zoning districts that the commission considers compatible with each designation.
"It was a tool that helped them look at how the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance was supposed to fit together," said Joe Powers, the county's planning director.
But commission member Ray Alcorn said lately the chart has caused nothing but confusion.
"We've had so many problems with this chart," Alcorn said.
While Alcorn supports the concept of the chart and found it helpful in the beginning, "I think the chart in its present form is broken," and full of holes and inconsistencies, he said.
For example, opponents of a defeated proposal that would have brought 20 town houses to Riner used the chart to back up their concerns - saying the town houses would violate the chart, which said low- to medium-density housing was appropriate in rural expansion areas. Proponents of the town houses, which were eventually defeated, also used the chart to argue the town houses met the chart's criteria as medium density
"We're working on revising our zoning ordinance now. As part of that, hopefully we can simplify our zoning ordinance so it's easier for people to understand," Powers said Thursday.
In concert with the revision of the county's zoning ordinance now under way, Alcorn said "we need to take a real strong look at how we want to use this chart."
He originally suggested the chart be placed in committee and revised.
Vice Chairman Ed Green said he didn't think the policy could be revised until the zoning ordinance is nearly complete and agreed "this is broken right now."
"Then let's repeal it until it's in shape," Alcorn said.
Harry Neumann Jr., another commissioner, said repealing the chart for now should be fine because "all it does is add another policy statement to the zoning ordinance that causes confusion to people. ... People come in and they nit-pick it. The attorneys nit-pick it."
Margaret Smith, a member of the Friends of Riner citizen group and a regular at county meetings, was happy with the commission's vote, calling the chart an "albatross." She said if the county made the zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan agreeable, there would be no need for the compatibility chart. The comprehensive plan is scheduled to be updated after the zoning ordinance rewrite is complete.
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