Restor’n Station Changes Plans

0
1055

Developers of the Restor’n Station, the large gas and convenience store project on Rt. 250 just east of the Interstate 64 interchange in Yancey Mills, returned to the Albemarle County Architecture Review Board May 17 to present a new version of the project. The ARB had rejected the first version of the plan in February.

Development consultant Jo Higgins, representing owner Jeff Sprouse, and joined by architect Jyke Jones, described a smaller building shifted to the center of the parcel. On the east side of the parcel, where the building had been placed before, the two pump islands would run perpendicular to the highway. The second island, which would include a diesel pump, is shifted farther back.

“We totally took everything the ARB said before,” said Higgins, who referred to a hand-drawn sketch of the 4.06 acre site plan. “We’re using the site totally and not trying to reserve any of it. The circulation is very much improved.”

Though reduced from 6,000 square feet to 4,500, the design of the store was essentially unchanged. It would be 150 feet off Rt. 250, with a gable facing the road, and with a 35-foot landscaped area separating it from the highway. Higgins said the building would be added onto on its west side at some later date. The parking area is reduced from 48 to 42 spaces.

“What strikes me is the amount of asphalt,” observed ARB member Fred Missel.

Higgins said the dimensions were necessary to get turning radiuses for the future office section. She said rooftop water would be collected in underground tanks for use watering the plantings and to wash the pavement. Water running off the pavement would go through a sand filtration system.

ARB member Bruce Wardel agreed, “It’s an enormous sea of pavement.”

Higgins explained that the building could not be shifted more because of the locations of septic fields. Missel called for “tight engineering” to see what pavement area could be reduced.

Wardel said, “I’m scratching my head about whether the site plan works or not.”

Because the presentation was a work session designed to get reactions, no formal action was taken.

The ARB also voted a certificate of appropriateness after its final review of Sprouse’s other Crozet project, Three Notch’d Center, a two-building office and retail center opposite the MusicToday complex.