When they meet Monday night, Montgomery County supervisors will again look at a controversial proposal that could lead to developing hundreds of new homes in the Elliston-Lafayette village area.
The regular board meeting will start at 7:15 p.m. in the county government center, second floor board chambers, 755 Roanoke St., Christiansburg.
Fotheringay LLC, which owns the historic Fotheringay home and nearby property, is asking supervisors to amend the county’s comprehensive plan to allow development of as many as 473 homes near the Eastern Montgomery middle and high schools.
Specifically, Fotheringay proposes changing the designation of nearly 634 acres off Roanoke Road between Crozier Road and Graham Street from “resource stewardship” to “village expansion.” Of that, Fotheringay proposes designating nearly 308 acres as open space while designating 326 acres for medium-density residential housing. That designation would permit single-family housing “at a density of no greater than five dwelling units per acre,” according to the application.
Within those 326 acres, about 161 acres would be targeted for development of 458 single-family homes at a density of 2.9 units per acre. About 165 acres would be targeted for development of 15 larger estate lots, for a total of 473 homes.
County administration recommends approval, according to the meeting agenda packet.
If the comprehensive plan change is approved, county officials would still have to vote separately on rezoning the property.
In March, county officials heard from numerous citizens opposed to large residential development in the area, along with some citizens favoring development there to meet a need for additional housing stock in the county.
As of Friday, 1,064 people had signed a change.org petition opposing rezoning of the property to allow for more housing development and opposing the proposed comprehensive plan designation. At the time of the petition’s origin, the proposal was to rezone 276 acres to “planned unit development-residential” use for potential development of 409 housing units. Critics assert that housing development will harm the scenic beauty and rural character of the area and put too much strain on public facilities and services.
