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

DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992                   TAG: 9203060230
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ZONING DISCOURAGES NEW ENTREPRENEURS

Our current recession has been blamed on the Japanese, Congress, the president and overpaid corporate executives. But how much of the blame is due simply to local zoning regulations? Every town has them; what kind of message do they send to would-be entrepreneurs?

Joe and Roya Nazare of Champs Sports Bar have had to hire a lawyer to defend the signs that advertise their business (Current Feb. 29). The signs apparently don't mesh with the code, but they create neither public danger nor public nuisance. They can hardly be said to be an eyesore in their position over a parking lot and among a TV antenna and satellite dish.

Why make starting a business more bothersome than it already is? How many would-be entrepreneurs read of the Nazares' plight and decide starting a business just isn't worth the hassles? Failure to let the Nazares use the signs only creates more work for lawyers. It's no wonder the United States has more lawyers per capita than any other country.\ John Kell Blacksburg

by CNB