No vote was made during the Sept. 9 work session, but a majority of council and commission members came to the conclusion that townhomes were not the right development for the property.
The overview
The proposed development consisted of 154 townhome units on about 13.8 acres. Amenities included a pool and a clubhouse, and each unit had a two-car garage and a front yard, said Richard Darragh, a representative of JPI, a development and construction company.
Darragh’s proposal also included widening Marshall Creek Road at the US 377 intersection to include two lanes going westbound and one lane going eastbound.
“I don’t feel like townhomes are what’s best for that site,” Mayor Pro Tem Holly Gray said.
The discussion
Council and commission members expressed concern that the development could bring too much traffic onto Marshall Creek Road during peak hours.
“During any type of rush hour, [traffic] is a nightmare,” council member David Thompson said.
Darragh presented a traffic analysis study for the townhome development, which predicted there would be 1,199 daily trips, with 80 cars during morning peak hours and 94 cars during afternoon peak hours.
“We did an analysis of two different scenarios versus ours,” Darragh said.
If three hotels with 125 rooms and 25,000 square feet of retail were developed on the property, then there would be 2,869 daily trips, with 194 cars during morning peak hours and 281 cars during afternoon peak hours, he said.
If a shopping plaza and a grocery store were constructed, then there would be 12,832 daily trips, with 194 cars during morning peak hours and 281 cars during afternoon peak hours, Darragh said.
“I think it’s going to be a tough sell ... in general to get people that will want to live behind a Discount Tire and Walmart,” council member Bryan Moyers said. “It’s just not a very attractive piece of Roanoke for living.”
Quote of note
“I don’t want us to be so anxious to develop it that we take something that’s really not right for this site,” Gray said. “I think this council and our committees have a long track record [of] that; if it’s not right, we don’t say yes.”
