Planning Commission backs rezoning for Yellow Sulphur apartments, approves companion Holiday Lane vacation

The Blacksburg Planning Commission on Sept. 2 recommended approval of Rezoning 25‑6 (Ordinance 2091), a Planned Residential District (PRD) application to convert roughly 9.7 acres at 3503 Holiday Lane from commercial/office to multifamily residential, and separately approved the companion right‑of‑way vacation that would incorporate Holiday Lane into the development.

The rezoning would allow five four‑story apartment buildings and, as presented by planning staff, would reconfigure the former Days Inn site into market‑rate housing. Carolyn Collins, senior planner, summarized the application as “a request to rezone 9.72 acres from general commercial and office to planned residential for a multifamily use.”

The commission’s vote moves the proposal to Town Council for final action. The commission held one hearing covering both the rezoning and the vacation request and then took separate motions and votes on each item.

Why it matters: The site is currently designated commercial on the town’s future‑land‑use map; rezoning it to PRD would remove commercial acreage from the town’s inventory while adding a large block of multifamily units. Commissioners and staff framed the request as a tradeoff between losing commercial land and gaining non‑student market housing the town says it needs.

Key facts and conditions

- Scope and density: The developer summarized the revised plan as five four‑story buildings, 320 units and 480 bedrooms (the applicant’s revised submission), which the applicant said yields about 49.1 bedrooms per acre, slightly above some by‑right commercial density comparisons. The applicant’s materials list a maximum of 464 bedrooms in an…