300 Apts tabled til March 28 as crowd jeered decision

A public hearing for a proposal for 300 apartment units in Daleville was put off until the March Board of Supervisors meeting. The public hearing, originally scheduled for the February 28, 2023 meeting at the Botetourt County Administration Center in Amsterdam, drew a large crowd, many of whom were unhappy with the supervisors’ decision to allow the applicant an additional 30 days to revisit its project.

Whisper Hill LLC and Invest Properties LLC were requesting a Special Exception Permit (SEP) to increase the number of multifamily dwellings units allowed per acre and an SEP to increase the maximum building height above 45 feet. The request included five contiguous parcels totaling 21.446 acres, with frontage along Roanoke Road (US 220), College Drive (Rt. 656) and Old Estates Lane.

The Planning Commission on March 13 had recommended approval of both requests. County Planner Drew Pierson told the Supervisors the applicants had asked for an additional 30 days before holding the public hearing in order to address concerns raised at the Planning Commission meeting.

Buchanan District Supervisor and Vice Chair Amy White told the public, who were raucously shouting their disapproval at the decision to postpone the hearing, that there was no point in holding a public hearing if the plans would be changed.

The Supervisors will take up the matter again at the March 28, 2023 board meeting.

                                                — Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee