Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992 TAG: 9201140261
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
THORNTON QUITS AS BEDFORD SUPERVISOR
Forest Supervisor Thomas "T.D." Thornton II announced Monday that he will resign from the Bedford County Board of Supervisors.He will leave the board on Jan. 27, midway through his second four-year term in office.
Thornton, president and co-founder of Progress Printing in Lynchburg, said he no longer had time to serve effectively on the board.
"The citizens of the 4th District deserve more time than I can give and still be effective in business," Thornton wrote in his letter of resignation.
"I have made this decision after much thought and with deep reservation," he said.
When he first ran for office in 1986, Thornton said, he "honestly thought that at that juncture of my life, time would become more available.
"The opposite has taken place," he said, "having become involved with additional business opportunities, consuming more of my time, not taking into consideration a somewhat hostile economic climate that is affecting each of us."
Thornton was chairman of the board in 1989 and vice chairman the year before that.
The board must appoint a replacement for him by Feb. 27. A special election will be held in November to complete his term, which ends the last day of 1993.
In other business, the supervisors ruled that churches wanting to expand their buildings will be exempt from the zoning process.
Small and large businesses, industries and other organizations regulated under the zoning rules will not have any such exemption.
"A religious, true church is God's house," said Supervisor James Teass, who suggested the exemption.
"I think they should be able to go through that without costing money," Teass said. "Churches are tax-exempt and rightly so."
The amendment, which passed on a 5-2 vote, allows an existing church to expand its building, even onto "contiguous" land.
New churches or old churches moving to a new site would still have to go through the zoning approval process.
Supervisor A.A. "Gus" Saarnijoki was one of the two supervisors who voted against the church exemption. "Any laws or ordinances we pass . . . ought to treat all individuals, all organizations on an equal basis," Saarnijoki said.
If churches do not have to apply to expand their buildings, "why then don't we allow the same for mom-and-pop stores?" he asked. "Why don't we let junkyards do the same thing?"
County Attorney Johnny Overstreet advised supervisors that they could "really get into a legal quagmire discussing church and state."
On this particular question though, he said, the board did have the "legal authority" to grant the exemption.
Other changes to the 2-year-old zoning ordinance, which were unanimously approved Monday night and will go into effect Feb. 1, included:
A provision to regulate large residential subdivisions, which do not fall under the current ordinance.
Dropping of a rule that allowed existing developments to expand by up to 50 percent of their size without going through the zoning process.
Adjustments to the scoring system, one element of the zoning ordinance's criteria. Most projects will score higher under the revised point system.