ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 9, 1997.
A proposal approved by Roanoke City Council on Monday anticipates a
real estate tax rate reduction of 1 cent beginning Jan. 1, 1998. The
date was incorrect in a graphic that ran in Tuesday's newspaper.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 8, 1997.
The source of new Roanoke area population estimates included in a
graphic in Monday's paper was the U.S. Census Bureau.
Developers and real estate agents see their future in Botetourt and Bedford counties.
Urban sprawl is still the residential rule in the Roanoke region, according to the latest population estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Roanoke's population is down 1 percent and Salem's is up 1.5 percent, while the head counts in surrounding counties have increased by double-digit percentages.
And it's to no one's surprise.
In fact, a good many people are banking on it.
Such as residential real estate developer A.R. Overbay, who last year plunked down just over $2 million for 423 acres in Botetourt County to build 300 homes and a golf course.
Botetourt's population is up 11.3 percent since 1990, according to the census bureau's estimates, to 27,813.
"One of the reasons we relocated our office to Botetourt County was to be in the center of where we see the future to be," said Vic Coffey, manager of the Boone & Company Realtors new office in southern Botetourt. The office moved recently from Hollins.
Walter White of Owens & Company Realtors said Owens opened an office in Botetourt eight years ago for the same reason.
Residential development is booming in Bedford County, too, where the population is up 15.3 percent, to 52,768, since 1990.
Most of the construction there is in the Forest area outside Lynchburg, with some pockets around Stewartsville, said Commissioner of Revenue Faye Eubank.
Roanoke County's population is up, but not to the same degree. It increased 2.9 percent.
"Basically, we are seeing great growth in suburban areas that have not become so urban that they look like big cities," said Donna Tolson, a research analyst with the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. The center's estimates, which are based on different methods than the census bureau's, show even greater population increases.
In other words, Washington-based urban consultant David Rusk said, "the continuing patterns of urban sprawl."
The populations around urban centers are not only growing, they are using up increasingly large amounts of land.
In 1960, Rusk said, the Roanoke urbanized area, as defined by the census bureau, included 124,752 people in 40 square miles. By 1990, it included
178,277 people in 92 square miles. That's a 43 percent increase in population and 127 percent increase in used land.
Rusk hadn't had a chance to crunch the latest numbers, but, on the surface, he didn't see any change in the trend.
Behind increased land use is the urge many people have to surround their homes with a little more land than they can get in a city.
Many new houses in counties around Roanoke come with two- or three-acre lots. In Botetourt, most of the county is not on a government-run sewer or water system, so many houses require 1.25-acre lots in order to accommodate private wells and septic systems.
It all adds up to the same old bad news for cities, Rusk said, which are often land-locked and offer mainly dense housing. There are few places left to build in them. The size of the average family is shrinking, and the tax base of cities is shrinking with them.
"It would have been extraordinary if Roanoke's population had gone up," Rusk said.
Botetourt County Administrator Jerry Burgess said he was surprised Botetourt's population wasn't even higher.
"It's very desirable to live here right now," he said. "People like the idea of getting a little land with their house."
White, of Owens & Company, is counting on the trend continuing - counting on it for his retirement. "I'd bet on it right now," he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by RT: Populations around the region. color. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB