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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993                   TAG: 9303080746
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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MORE PARKING NEEDED FOR PROJECT

IN THE INTEREST of valley harmony, I would like to make a suggestion about the Hotel Roanoke and conference center project.

Those pitiful 200 parking spaces on Wells Avenue are not nearly enough if the conference center is to be used by more than 200 people at one time. Those who say more than one person per car are not educated to the fact that it is one person-one car. This applies all over the United States.

Assuming the precious landscaping on the hotel property can be taken up, preserved and replanted later, I suggest:

Remove landscaping on the property and preserve.

Excavate deep enough to build two- or three-story parking garages in the whole perimeter of the property. Cover them up and replant the landscaping in its original places.

Provide good security. With adequate parking, it just might be possible to make a success of Renew Roanoke and bring the Roanoke Valley into the 20th century. FRANCES L. COMBS SALEM

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