Ruckersville development gets Board nod

By Susan Gibbs Record Reporter
Published: September 18, 2008

Greene’s Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a rezoning that makes way for Midway Corner—a commercial development in Ruckersville that could eventually bring more retail shops, office space, and possibly a hotel to the area.
The action, postponed from its previous meeting to give the Virginia Department of Transportation time to clarify comments, was taken at the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, September 9.
The project is to be developed by KG Associates, creator of Forest Lakes off Route 29 in Albemarle. Midway Corner will be located on more than 16 acres, stretching southward down U.S. Route 29 from its intersection with State Route 607.
The request to rezone land in Greene to make way for KG Associates’ Midway Corner has been the subject of contention since it came before the Planning Commission last spring.
The primary issue was the B-3 zoning designation, which allows for a hotel to be constructed on the site.
The B-3 designation covers those portions of the County characterized by constant heavy traffic.  In addition to hotels and motels, it allows for: drive-up restaurants; convenience stores; vehicle sales and service; building material sales; service contractors; highway retail service centers and truck stops; and, bus, truck and taxi terminals.
More than a hundred residents of Enderly Acres, a residential development that will abut Midway Corner, objected to that designation. They feared, per their petition, that “24-hour or long-hour operations, with lights, noise, odors, and activity (will be) disruptive to our neighborhood every hour of the day, every day of the year.“
However, by the time the project was approved, the developer had restricted most, if not all, of the uses residents had objected to.