Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DALEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"It is time for the citizens to wake up, or someone else is going to be running the ship," said David Mankin, who led the meeting on behalf of Citizens For Responsible Land Use In Botetourt County. "We have been hardballed and snowballed to this point. We need to get it so that the citizens will run the community."
Last month, the county Board of Supervisors plunked down $4.5 million for about 922 acres on what was once the old Greenfield Plantation and unveiled a plan for the land - to be named Botetourt Center at Greenfield - which includes a industrial-office park, school and recreation area.
Following Thursday night's meeting, some people said they resented a plan for the land being developed before county residents had a chance to comment. The county negotiated for the land in private and unveiled its plan simultaneously with announcing the purchase.
"Five people tell us what's good for us," said Roy Armiger, who lives about 1 1/2 miles from the proposed project. "This is the way they always do it: Through the back door."
Armiger's neighbor, Preston Clark, agreed.
"The county has taken the position of very little public participation," Clark said. "The citizens have put too much faith in these people. We've let them run away with the program."
Earlier, Gene Crotty, a retired accounting professor from Virginia Western Community College, urged the gathering to force the supervisors to implement a two-year moratorium on developing the project.
"Some of those supervisors will come up for election in those two years," Crotty said.
Three members of the Board of Supervisors face election in November.
Mankin, a retired veterinarian, said the county proposal would ruin the quiet rural life and scenic beauty along U.S. 220 leading to Fincastle.
"Once you build this industrial park, there is no going back," he said. "You have lost your beauty."
County officials said the proposed park could add about $4 million in tax revenue each year and 1,000 to 2,000 jobs after about a decade. The supervisors said the project is necessary to sustain economic growth and keep the tax burden off residential taxpayers.
Mankin said he's buying none of that.
"If you don't get a tax increase in the next three to five years if this project goes through, I'll eat my hat," he said. "And I'll be here to eat it - I don't know where these supervisors will be."
Bob Bagnoli, another speaker, said the county's financial records do not indicate a pressing need for immediate industrial development. The county has $15.4 million in cash reserves for things such as "unforeseen" economic opportunities and cost overruns in building projects.
County officials contend that keeping a reserve is the only prudent way to do business.
Bagnoli listed some alternative uses for the Greenfield land, including the development of picnic areas, a community lake, a civic center, an artistic-historical center or possibly a site for a college.
Bagnoli said the supervisors owe residents a consideration of their ideas.
"It is not manna from heaven, this money," he said. "It came from you and I."
by CNB