READY FOR RAZING IN CHRISTIANSBURG

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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992                   TAG: 9202180362
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
READY FOR RAZING IN CHRISTIANSBURG
IF PARKING facilities ever become a major tourist draw, downtown Christiansburg is going to be ready.
On one side of East Main Street, they'll soon be knocking down the landmark Angle's supermarket and other old buildings owned by Montgomery County to make room for parking. On the other side of East Main Street, they'll be knocking down buildings owned by the town - also to make room for parking.
What will attract people to Christiansburg to use all the new parking spaces is up in the air with the wrecking balls - but to heck with it. That, essentially, is what the county's board of supervisors said last week when it voted against a proposed design study for the town's downtown development.
Not that the county alone is to blame for rejecting the idea. On the contrary: The county and town have been playing Ping-Pong with the study proposal for a year. The Montgomery supervisors had agreed to pay two-thirds of the report's quite small ($7,200) cost. The town continued to dither on picking up the balance until the supervisors said, in effect: Forget it.
So bring on the demolition crews. The county will get on with plans for its side of the street; the town can get on with plans for its side. Never the twain will meet.
Granted, the county can use expanded facilities for courts and other government operations that may come in the future with the razing of the old buildings. Christiansburg outside the downtown has seen considerable growth. Hopes that the area will grow as a professional and government hub are not unreasonable.
Granted, too, that not a lot of the old downtown is left. Most of the old feel of the place departed as commerce boomed around the shopping mall area. Design and planning studies have been done in the past; a new study might have changed nothing in the county's or anyone else's plans downtown.
Nonetheless, the proposed study, supported by many Christiansburg residents, might have found some ways to add needed new facilities while preserving portions of the old downtown's appearance. At the least, such a study would have provided a forum for citizens to present their ideas. It might have given the community more of a sense that county and town officials were logically planning for the town's future.
As it is, residents may not be comforted by Christiansburg Mayor Harold Linkous' statement: "We will still cooperate with the county on whatever they plan to do." The jetsam of the design study is a classic example of jurisdictional uncooperation.
Perhaps a common-sense way yet may be found for common cause to prevail. Perhaps one day the county supervisors and Christiansburg council will bicker less and plan together more. In the meantime, if you like the way Christiansburg looks today, better go take a picture of it - quick.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB