Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990 TAG: 9006200361
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MILES W. HOLLAND
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The landowners of three of Franklin County's seven magisterial districts enjoy the traditional American freedom to use their lands as they see fit, instead of having such use dictated by appointed land-use zoning bureaucrats, as is the case in the other four districts.
While citizens of each of the seven districts can vote for only the supervisors who represent their respective districts, the supervisors who represent the three unzoned districts (Wayne Angell, Ron Woods and Gordon Washburn) exercise the questionable law-making power to vote against land-use rezoning petitions of aggrieved landowners in the zoned districts.
Incredible though it be, the Roanoke Times & World-News views this anti-democratic governmental state of affairs as well-justified on the alleged ground that the "successful" enforcement of the zoning ordinance "contributes to the welfare of the county as a whole."
Never mind that this clearly is a blatant denial to the zoning victims of the equal protection of the laws, guaranteed by both the Virginia and the U.S. constitutions. Never mind that this is an example of the vicious view that the end justifies the means, no matter how repugnant to the rationale of citizens' constitutional right to equal voting influence in the making of the laws imposed on them!
It is a sad thing to see the Roanoke Times & World-News, which should be a watchdog of our democratic rights vis-a-vis oppressive governmental actions against us, giving aid and comfort instead to those who hold the view that our bureaucratic rulers know best what is good for us.
In practical effect, the citizens of the county's zoned districts are made victims of an odd species of gerrymander. They are categorically denied not only equal but also all effective voting voice in the election of those who vote - including supervisors representing unzoned landowners who are entirely free to use their lands as they see fit - on the land-use rights of the protesting victims of zoning restrictions.
This is clearly a wrongful, irresponsible and flagrantly unjust kind of governmental power, discriminatorily imposed against the rights and interests of the citizens of the four zoned districts.
Mike Brooks, the Union Hall District supervisor, is clearly right in maintaining that, under the circumstances, the supervisors representing the unzoned districts should not vote - in truth, should not have the right to vote - in zoning cases coming before the board.
It is equally certain, for constitutional reasons, that no law is going to be upheld which would require a supervisor from an unzoned district to vote for or against a petition for relief of a "zoned" complainant.
The county supervisors should abolish the existing zoning ordinance and re-enact one which would impose zoning regulations on land within three miles of Smith Mountain Lake. It is the landowners there who apparently are responsible for imposing zoning on themselves and the other districts of the county.
The Virginia attorney general's opinion that it would be illegal to zone less than the whole of any magisterial district of the county is only another person's opinion, and not necessarily the law. However, there is no legal logic that would make such part-of-a-district zoning any more illegal than zoning less than the entire county - that is, less than all the county's magisterial districts.
In light of the injustices, hostilities and the high financial costs of the existing zoning system to both the victims and the county's taxpayers generally, it is quite in order for the county supervisors to move immediately to remedy the deprivations of the citizens' rights and freedoms by such action.
by CNB