BLACKSBURG — Sometimes preserving a family farm means selling off a piece of it, Beth Obenshain said Monday.

Obenshain spoke hours after she and Landmark Properties, an Athens, Ga.-based developer of college student housing, announced a plan to build a neighborhood of cottages aimed at Virginia Tech students on Blacksburg property that Obenshain’s family farmed for decades.

“The Retreat,” as Landmark Properties calls a style of development it has either built or is constructing in 11 other communities around the country, would be a maximum of 220 units, each with an average of four bedrooms, along Prices Fork Road, Landmark Vice President Jason Doornbos said. Landmark Properties last year withdrew a similar proposal for the Blacksburg section of the Toms Creek Basin after neighbors complained it was too dense for the area.

While the new proposal has many details still to work out, Doornbos said his company’s goal is to move it through the town’s rezoning process during the next year, start construction in the summer of 2014, and open to renters in the fall of 2015.

Obenshain said that for her and the dozen relatives who are the owners of the Oaknoll Farm, the sale of about 35 acres is a way to “keep the core of the family farm sustainable for the future.” The family still would own about 100 acres of farmland after the sale, she said.

Obenshain declined to say how much the land would sell for. She noted that while her family has signed a contract with Landmark Properties, it is contingent upon winning town approval for the project.

Obenshain’s family has owned and farmed land on the west end of Blacksburg since 1937. In more recent years, much of the family land has been rented to others to farm, with Obenshain, the founding director of the New River Land Trust and a former editor at The Roanoke Times, and her husband continuing to live there.

There were plenty of offers to buy the farm over the years, but the family never seriously considered them — until about six months ago, Obenshain said Monday. “We were approached out of the blue … by three big student housing companies, national companies,” she said.

The simultaneous offers got the attention of family members, who decided it might be time to take a closer, more informed look at selling and looked at additional proposals. Eventually, the decision was made to go with Landmark Properties, which was one of the original trio of companies whose offers sparked the search.

Obenshain said the decision was partly based on the appearance of Landmark Properties developments, which she said “very much resembles a single-family” neighborhood.

Obenshain said her family also liked how Landmark Properties did business, including how the company pulled out last year rather than battle Toms Creek Basin residents or the town.

“They take great pride in being able to work with local government. … We have a lot of years invested in this community and we wanted to work with someone who was respectful,” Obenshain said.

Doornbos said Landmark Properties got its start in 2002 in Athens, Ga. Its first Retreat development was regulated more like an apartment complex while giving students the group house experience they wanted. Landmark Properties has replicated the Athens development in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Raleigh, N.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; and other communities, Doornbos said.

In a prepared statement, Obenshain and Doornbos said Landmark Properties’ developments include on-site management and often feature swimming pools and other amenities.

The new neighborhood will be buffered from nearby residents, Obenshain said. She and her husband will be its closest neighbors, she said.

The family has applied to take almost 47 acres out of the town’s agricultural and forestal district. This is for the development, but is larger than the area being sold because the boundaries of the new neighborhood have not yet been drawn, Obenshain said. The family will apply to put whatever part of this land is not sold back into the agricultural and forestal district, Obenshain said.

A town committee is to consider the request to remove land from the agricultural and forestal district today, town Councilman Michael Sutphin wrote on Twitter.

Obenshain said that a key to the family’s decision to sell was simply that it let Oaknoll continue as a working farm for another generation.

“I’ve been throwing away letters from companies like this for years,” Obenshain said. “Then a friend said, ‘You know, they don’t want that much acreage.’ ”

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