City Council voted unanimously (with Councilwoman Anita Price absent) to remove the proffers on the old Ukrops building on Franklin Road and sell it to Carilion to use for a new outpatient clinic. (See the story elsewhere in this newspaper about Carilion’s plans for the new clinic.) The Planning Commission had unanimously approved the plan and no one spoke during the public hearing on the matter.
Council members heard from resident Getra Hanes-Selph who wanted them to delay action on rezoning property at 4662 and Old Mountain Road to include apartments and single family homes. She represented the Read Mountain Road Neighborhood Association and said her neighbors found out about the plan just a few days before the Council meeting.
Selph said she and her neighbors were concerned about the “very dangerous section of road” in the area and questioned the sign announcing the zoning request saying it wasn’t in public view.
Officials with Harpear Properties asked to have the area rezoned from R-5, residential single family district to MXPUD, Mixed United Planned Development District. Representative Jay Hough said members of the Planning Commission suggested the rezoning to modernize the country store on the site, put apartments on top, build apartment buildings and a laundromat and have it become a Village Center with sidewalks.
Also at issue was the amount of additional storm water runoff the development would bring. Council was assured there would be no more runoff than there is currently. In the end, Council felt there had been ample notice about community meetings on the project and voted unanimously to grant the rezoning request.
Council also voted unanimously to approve a public-private charitable organization to fund the arts in Roanoke.
Mayor Bowers said, “Roanoke has always spent good money for good things.” He likened this to the building of the Roanoke Civic Center. “We’ve done a pretty good job over 40 – 50 years now – of supporting capital improvements in the arts. The zoo, museums, the Transportation Museum, Taubman, the Civic Center – but what I think my thought has been on this initiative is perhaps the times are changing and we need to be considering public funding of some kind in conjunction with the private funding.”
During the public hearing, representatives from the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Roanoke Arts Commission, Mill Mountain Theatre and other local arts groups spoke in favor of the plan. They all reiterated the need for an endowment fund to sustain arts organizations in the Star City for the future.
– Beverly Amsler
