Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992 TAG: 9203050247
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Some were afraid they would end up paying more taxes. A 72-year-old woman who owns farmland along Mt. Tabor Road worried that she wouldn't have the last word on what happens to her land, though she said she has no intention of developing it.
The meetings - the first was held last week in Christiansburg - are a call to county residents to participate in the project.
Michael Appleby, an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech, assured the audience of about 30 county residents that they will be heard.
"We'll seek to convince owners of the desirable provisions of their land," he said. "We're talking about impacts for our grandchildren . . . preserving those very things we value in Montgomery County."
James and Martha McDonald, whose farm in the Prices Fork and Glade Road area of Blacksburg has been in the family since 1763, worried about possible development.
Martha McDonald said housing can affect the farmland with water run-off. They experienced flooding recently with runoff from the Toms Creek area.
Tech graduate student Van Anderson explained that students have mapped areas that may not be suitable for development because of terrain, historic significance or other reasons.
Open-space planning isn't new to Mary Rhoades, an entomology lab specialist at Tech. She remembers joining a committee in the 1970s to start open-space planning in Blacksburg. The committee Rhoades remembers also was trying to protect trees, she said, but it dissolved before anything was done.
Some questions posed by the audience to be addressed at future workshops included landowner and property rights, possible financial incentives for landowners to keep their land open and who should pay for future development.
Public workshops also will be held on the following dates:
March 16, 7:30-9:15 p.m. at Shawsville High School library, Prices Fork Elementary School cafeteria and Blacksburg Community Recreation Center.
March 17, 7:30-9:15 p.m. at Auburn High School library and Slushers Chapel Church of God.
The second round will be April 13 and 14, same places and times.
by CNB