Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991 TAG: 9104180464
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Fifty-nine percent of the people responding to the survey said they would be willing to pay higher taxes in order to preserve the county's open space, and 80 percent said they thought a plan would add to property values in a subdivision.
"The responses were generally positive to the idea of open-space planning," Tech doctoral student John Flynn told the commission.
Students in a Tech planning and landscape-architecture class conducted the survey at the request of the commission. The county's 1990 comprehensive plan recommended that the county develop a plan for the management and preservation of open spaces.
The survey found that those responding consider the county's water resources to be the most important, followed by farm land, wildlife and plant habitats, scenery, historic and cultural resources and recreational resources.
Eighty-seven percent of the respondents, including 80 percent of those living in farm and forest districts, said they would support local ordinances to protect water resources.
In answer to a question designed to find what scenic resources are considered most important, 40 percent said development should be contained to valley floors, while 27 percent said it would be all right to develop mountainsides.
Asked to indicate what recreational facilities they would most like to see county funds spent on, the respondents gave the most support to hiking trails, biking lanes and picnic areas. Courts and fields for sports got much less support.
Over two-thirds of those responding said they would favor the county purchasing land and passing new laws to protect critical wildlife habitats.
"We were kind of surprised people were so willing to accept land-use regulations" to meet the goals of an open-space plan, said student John Feeman.
Those surveyed included government officials; citizens, including those living in farm and forest districts; environmentalists; and others.
A random, scientific survey of all the county's residents was not attempted because of a lack of money, Flynn said.
Of 449 people to whom survey forms were mailed, 187, or 42 percent, responded. Twenty-two percent of the respondents are government officials, 35 percent are citizens, 16 percent live in farm or forest districts, and 21 percent are environmentalists.
Flynn said he was surprised a larger percentage of environmentalists had not responded to the survey. Only 39 of the 62 members of the New River Valley Environmental Coalition who were mailed surveys returned them.
Citizens' comments on the idea of an open-space plan were wide-ranging, Feeman said. He said one respondent said he became wary when the word "preserve" was used; but another said, "We have a unique and valuable area and must work to preserve it without stopping development."
Some of the specific areas of the county, where respondents said open space is worth preserving, are Brush Mountain, the Ellett Valley and North Fork watershed, and the Shawsville and Elliston areas.
by CNB