Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991                   TAG: 9102110044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE SIDETRACKS PLANS FOR RAILROAD PARK

Last year, Mayor Noel Taylor proposed that a park be developed along the Norfolk Southern tracks with flowers, benches, walkways and other landscaping. He recommended that it include both sides of the railroad tracks between the Virginia Museum of Transportation and Williamson Road.

But City Manager Robert Herbert said there are "practical and financial limitations" that will prevent the city from implementing the proposal now.

In a report on City Council's agenda for tonight, Herbert said the city owns only a small amount of street right of way in the proposed area for the park and could not do a substantial amount of landscaping. To provide more space, the city would have to reduce the width of the streets, he said.

The city manager said any changes in the right of way also would affect the railroad's property, including fences, signal lines, utility poles and even the tracks in some places.

Even though the city won't develop a park now, one of the unsightly areas that prompted Taylor's recommendation will be landscaped as part of the Domimion Tower project.

The area along the railroad tracks on the north side of Norfolk Avenue near the Dominion Tower will be planted with a hedge as part of the landscaping for the office building. Private funds will pay for the hedge, but the city will maintain it, Herbert said.

City officials won't discard Taylor's proposal, Herbert said. "It may be possible to implement portions of it over a period of time as it moves higher on the priority list and the city's financial condition improves," he said.

Also tonight, council is expected to urge Congress to approve federal legislation that would give the city the right to regulate cable television rates.

Vice Mayor Howard Musser said the legislation was recently introduced because of growing support among local governments for some control over the rates.