Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990 TAG: 9007100509
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
The ordinance, which passed unanimously, requires owners of property larger than 5,000 square feet to get a permit before clearing, filling or grading their land. Under the old rule, lots smaller than 10,000 square feet were not regulated.
The new ordinance also requires landowners to protect shorelines from erosion - caused by waves and changing water levels - with rip-rap and other measures.
The fees for land-disturbing permits also have increased. Owners will pay $50 per acre of an entire building project. In the past, they had paid $25 for each acre they disturbed.
In a public hearing before the vote, several residents from Smith Mountain Lake told supervisors that they favored the tougher rules. Without them, the residents said, land along the lake was likely to erode.
Bob Hawlk, president of the Smith Mountain Lake Association, urged the board to pass the ordinance, but said it would not prove to be an "end-all" solution to erosion problems at the lake. The ordinance still does not regulate erosion and sediment control for construction of single-family homes outside subdivisions.
County officials have yet to decide whether to hire a full-time employee to enforce erosion and sediment-control regulations.
In May, the erosion issue arose when officials halted work on a lake subdivision, Pebble Brook off Virginia 853. R.L. Tomlin Construction was told to remove deposits left in the lake and revise its formal plan for preventing such deposits.
In other business, the supervisors agreed to recommend a more stringent policy for the approval of "no-wake" zones.
The supervisors recommended that the no-wake buoys be placed in high-traffic areas like marinas and public boat ramps. The board did not ban all other areas from being designated no-wake zones, but suggested that affected property owners and the public be notified of any new requests for buoys.
Some officials on Smith Mountain Lake, who fear that a proliferation of buoys is turning the lake into one big no-wake zone, had suggested that the buoys be tougher to receive.
Franklin County recently adopted a policy restricting future no-wake zones to marinas and voted to review the status of all existing zones. The Bedford supervisors also asked that all existing no-wake markers be reviewed.
by CNB