JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

A proposal before Montgomery County leaders is to build a restaurant with a drive-through and an 80-room hotel off Interstate 81's Exit 128 at the Ironto interchange.

| Sharla Bardin

sharla.bardin@roanoke.com, 381-1669

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Travelers on Interstate 81 in Montgomery County could have a new restaurant and hotel to visit.

A proposal before county leaders is to build a restaurant with a drive-through and an 80-room hotel off I-81's Exit 128 at the Ironto interchange.

The board of supervisors reviewed plans last week for a rezoning request to allow for the development on North Fork Road and across the road from the Lancer Truck Stop.

The request from Henry and Sarah Ann Brabham and Brabham Enterprises LLC is to rezone 6.8 acres from agricultural use to general business use to allow for the hotel and restaurant.

The board is expected to take action on the request at its Dec. 14 meeting.

Steven Sandy, the county's planning director, presented the plans to the supervisors and said the request is to build the hotel and a 4,500-square-foot restaurant.

No one from the public spoke in the meeting about the request.

Sandy said the property is in an area designated for mixed uses in the county's comprehensive plan.

The Virginia Department of Transportation plans to widen North Fork Road to support a planned railroad intermodal yard. A two-mile stretch of the road is to become a major truck route between the interstate and a planned intermodal rail yard in Elliston.

An intermodal yard is an open-air facility for transferring shipping containers between trucks and trains.

In recent months, the board has approved plans that will allow for multiple hotels near I-81.

In September, the board approved plans that pave the way for three hotels, 40 homes, three restaurants and a two-story retail and office building for the Tyler Road area.

The board approved three rezoning requests that span almost 51 acres for properties previously zoned for agricultural use. The request was to rezone the properties, near I-81's Exit 109, to general business with some residential uses.

Steve Semones of Balzer and Associates Inc., which is representing the applicants involved, said in September that "eight to 12 months would realistically be the earliest a project could get through all the approvals necessary to start construction."

Semones also said then that it will likely take about five to 10 years to complete the projects and the developments will likely be done in phases.

The applicants involved in the projects are S&P of Virginia LLC, Roger Woody and Emerald Investors Inc.

County planning officials have said that area has been planned for commercial growth and the properties involved are in an area designated as urban expansion in the county's comprehensive plan.

Urban expansion areas have been targeted as preferred locations for new residential and business development, according to county planning documents.