Adams Construction Company, thwarted once in large part by community opposition in Glenvar, is turning to another parcel in western Roanoke County, in hopes of building an asphalt manufacturing and distribution plant there. This time it is land near the new Western Virginia Regional Jail, on tracts already zoned industrial.
The matter would still need to come before the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission however, since a special use permit (SUP) is required. Both groups will consider the SUP request in November, after a public meeting which will be held this month.
The earlier plan, to build a plant on the site of Salem’s former water treatment facility, drew stern opposition and protests from the crowds composed of the nearby Glenvar residents. Adams said then it would consider other parcels in that part of Roanoke County, where planned road construction on US 460/Rt.11 would make an asphalt plant there ideal, according to company officials.
Adams Construction and county personnel will hear what the neighbors think at a community meeting to be held on Monday, October 12 at Glenvar Middle School at 7 p.m. County planner David Holladay points out that long range plans for that part of Roanoke County already call for industrial uses: “It is an area where we encourage… all types of industry, industrial parks, even mining and extraction, and manufacturing.”
Henry Bryant has lived near the Peaceful Drive address desired by Adams for more than two decades and doesn’t want to see an asphalt plant built there, or the truck traffic that would come with it: “We’re trying to organize and get information, and find out exactly what’s what. Anyway you look at it, an asphalt plant in a residential area is not a good thing. I hope our friends in Glenvar will come to our aid. The more information we have the better we are.”
Bryant said the adjacent Roanoke River contains endangered fish that could be imperiled by any asphalt runoff and noted that part of the river near the proposed site has flooded in the past. He added that Glenvar isn’t all that far away, and remembered the protest signs that read Not In Anyone’s Back Yard. “Well, it’s in my backyard now, and in a sense, it’s still in their backyard,” said Bryant. “We’re not that far from where [Adams] wanted that plant to be in the first place. The zoning up here is all wrong.”
Bryant calls the west end of Roanoke County and the neighboring eastern portion of Montgomery County (where an intermodal train/truck facility is planned) the “orphan children,” adding, “things tend to get dumped at county lines and in more rural areas,” where Bryant claims, elected officials “tend to forget about us.” Butch Church is the Roanoke County supervisor for the Catawba district where the plant is proposed.
By Gene Marrano [email protected]