Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993 TAG: 9301050096
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
FRANKLIN BOARD TO BRAVE ZONING ISSUE
After retreating last month from a vote to impose countywide zoning, the Franklin County supervisors Monday signaled their intention to return to their original position.Board members said they regretted caving in to an unruly crowd at a Dec. 15 public hearing, and indicated they would again vote on zoning Jan. 19.
"I feel like we made a hasty decision," Gills Creek Supervisor Charles Ellis said. "I was part of it, and if it was a bad decision I'll take my part of that."
Facing a crowd of 200 zoning opponents who called the board liars and communists, the supervisors last month voted to implement zoning in three previously unzoned voting districts. Minutes later, after several members of the crowd stood up and waved their arms in protest, the board retracted that vote and called instead for General Assembly-sanctioned referendums.
But Monday morning the supervisors faced no angry crowd, and their desire for zoning resurfaced.
Blue Ridge Supervisor Hubert Quinn, who was elected as a zoning opponent, said his constituents "would not be too happy" to find out the issue was again on the agenda.
"We sat up there and voted 6-1 to put it on a referendum," Blue Ridge Supervisor Hubert Quinn said after Monday's meeting. "I can't see the supervisors jumping from one side to the other."
Ellis made a motion Monday to rescind the resolution asking for referendums in the Blue Ridge, Blackwater and Snow Creek districts. Newly elected board Chairman Wayne Angell said that because rescinding the vote for the resolution would be "fairly substantive action," the issue should be put on the agenda for the board's Jan. 19 meeting.
Boone District Supervisor Homer Murray has been steadfast in his push for countywide zoning. Murray was again the one to broach the subject Monday.
Murray said he thought the board's request - that three area legislators ask the General Assembly to allow referendums - would run into opposition from Virginia Association of Counties. The association, Murray said, has discouraged the General Assembly from doing anything to interfere with a local government's dealings with zoning.
And Board member Gus Forry said he thinks some residents don't understand that the referendums would be "advisory." That means even if residents in one district voted against zoning, the board still could implement it.
"I think what we're doing is wasting time," Ellis said.
Del. Ward Armstrong, who represents part of Franklin County, said he and Sen. Virgil Goode were approached about requesting the referendums at a community meeting in Ferrum. Armstrong said he's not sure how the legislators' request would go over in Richmond.
"It is very difficult to explain to a legislator from Fairfax County how a locality does not want zoning," Armstrong said. "They're going to look at you as if to say, `Gee, that's like asking whether you want indoor plumbing.' "
Murray predicted that the crowd at the board's Jan. 19 meeting would be "worse than ever." He said the board's reversal last month has left the impression that intimidation works.
"I think they've got the impression now, `All we've got to do is go down there and raise hell,' " Murray said.
Monday's meeting was called to elect new leaders. Angell, the supervisor from Blackwater District, was elected chairman. Union Hall Supervisor Lois English was elected vice chairwoman.