Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270415
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Instead, the supervisors "tabled" the project. If the state Transportation Board goes along, that means the $4.5 million project will be put off indefinitely.
But the board's action confused and angered a dozen Crystal Creek Drive residents who attended the meeting.
"Why is it that I don't feel elated?" one resident said.
"It would have been much better if they had done the right thing and gone ahead and pulled it off the plan," said Burton Claxton, president of the Crystal Creek Homeowners Association and Civic League.
Supervisor Dick Robers, who opposes the project, said the residents would have been even more disappointed if there had been a straight up-or-down vote. He and Lee Eddy apparently were the only supervisors who would have voted to take the project off the six-year plan. But Robers' motion to table the project passed 5-0.
"If they were going to ignore the citizens and ignore all the expert data, then yes, this is the best thing," Claxton admitted.
Still, he said, Crystal Creek Drive residents would take their fight to the state Department of Transportation.
Fred Altizer, the Department of Transportation's Salem resident engineer, was at Tuesday's meeting. "I think I understand the wishes of the board," he said.
If the Transportation Board goes along with the supervisors' action, plans for the project - which were drawn up at a cost of $350,000 - will be filed away. Of course, Altizer said, they can be dusted off if the project ever is revived.
Crystal Creek Drive runs along Back Creek between U.S. 221 and Starkey. Those who live on and near the crooked country road don't want the extra traffic that widening it would bring. And they say the project would damage the pristine creek environment.
"It would be totally irresponsible" to let the project go ahead as planned, Bob Blankenship said. "It should be killed here and now."
Some of the residents suspect the supervisors will take the project "off the table" and sneak it back onto the six-year plan.
"There's no intention to do that," Robers said firmly.
The residents were particularly angry at Supervisor Harry Nickens, who said during the meeting that he didn't like the tone of some of their comments. "If this continues much longer, I'm going to ask for a reconsideration" and make a motion to put the project back on the six-year plan, he told the residents.
Also on Tuesday, the supervisors:
Approved policies and criteria for the upcoming redrawing of voting district lines.
A committee made up of Registrar Elizabeth Leah, Planning Director Terry Harrington and County Attorney Paul Mahoney will prepare one or more proposals in the next 30 to 45 days for the supervisors to consider.
Voting districts must be roughly equal in population, be compact and contiguous and have clearly observable boundaries. Minority voting strength must not be diluted. And neighborhoods such as North Lakes, which now is split between the Catawba and Hollins magisterial districts, should not be divided, the supervisors said.
The county now has five magisterial districts. The board might consider plans to increase the number of districts or to elect one or more supervisors at-large.
Approved the Easter Seal Society of Virginia's request to put on a second summer-long series of beach music, oldies and Top 40 concerts at the Valleypointe business park near the Roanoke Regional Airport.
Raised the maximum fine for failure to pay personal property taxes and failure to get a motor vehicle decal from $20 to $250. The ordinance originally raised the maximum fine to $100, but the supervisors changed it Tuesday.
Approved a 60-day extension of Cox Cable Roanoke's franchise. The extension will give negotiators for Roanoke and Roanoke County more time to come up with a new franchise agreement with the cable company.
The supervisors also approved an increase in the franchise fee the cable company pays the county, from 4 percent of its annual revenues to 5 percent.
by CNB