Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 10, 1993 TAG: 9301080175
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Roger Hunt
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PLANNER LEAVES AREA WITH HOPES FOR A `LEVEL FIELD'
Like the ghost of Christmas past, "my time grows short." After five years as a local government planner in Southwest Virginia, three of them with the town of Blacksburg, I am leaving to complete my doctorate in geography at Penn State, and eventually to teach future generations of planners. I do not know if I will return to Virginia to live and work. I do know I will miss it. I also believe all of us should try to leave a place a little better than we found it. I hope the following three points will help.\ How politics can ruin your car: For Americans, the bad old days of corrupt municipal governments are mostly gone. The city manager form of government evolved to get rid of ward politics and cronyism at city hall. Local planning staffs in particular, professionally trained and backed by a code of ethics, are obligated to make recommendations based on merit alone.
Unfortunately, like grit in your carburetor, politics is always getting sucked into the delicate workings of local government. If you don't clean it out, pretty soon your engine seizes up. Like your car's air cleaner, the professional staff's job is to filter out politics and allow clean decision-making on merit and professional, objective criteria.
I know in Blacksburg our air cleaner needs a good vacuuming. I suspect cleaner air will benefit other localities as well.
\ NIMBYS and LULUs: Unless they live next door to Mr. Rogers, most people's response to neighborhood changes is "Not in my backyard!" The NIMBY problem is pronounced in a college town like Blacksburg where student lifestyles often clash with settled residents' peace and quiet and where citizens have come to hold high standards for a clean, attractive, safe community.
But the hard truth is, we all need locally unwanted land uses - LULUs - landfills, low-income housing, all-night convenience stores, fraternity houses. Where should they go? Well, they inevitably have to go into someone's backyard. The trick is to balance things so that a few residents' backyard LULUs are outweighed by the need to serve the whole community.
Unfortunately, the second half of the equation is often left out by the politicians (who, after all, know that those angry NIMBYs have a special incentive to vote). In the Roanoke Valley, Bradshaw gets the landfill instead of the closer and geographically preferable Vinton area. In Blacksburg, the LULUs end up going to Christiansburg; Virginia Tech employees can't afford to buy houses near work; and everyone gets to waste fuel going after basic necessities.
Someone needs to point out that LULUs serve a greater good for the community as a whole. Mr. Rogers doesn't work here, so that's the staff's job.
\ Playing Fields and Mine Fields: The term "level playing field" means a lot to me. When I was in college, I played soccer. I remember playing one game in particular on an uneven field. It was my last game, and I have a sort of souvenir in reverse: the missing cartilage in my right knee.
Blacksburg is correctly perceived as a tough town in which to develop projects. We have a nice community, and we need not be at all apologetic or defensive about keeping it that way through tough land development regulations. We do need to be embarrassed about an ordinance and administration that achieve that toughness by tilting the playing field - by sending mixed signals to developers and citizens about what we want; by throwing up an impenetrable bureaucratic maze so that only the clever survive.
Fairness and consistency are the keys here. Rezonings and special-use permits should be granted according to clear criteria outlined in the Comprehensive Plan; the zoning ordinance should clearly spell out the goals of the plan; and the staff, Planning Commission and governing body should be clear in carrying out the plan and the regulations. The Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan and the city of Roanoke's neighborhood planning process are good examples of how the process can be made accessible to everyone.
We all deserve zoning regulations that promote managed growth, and you can't manage growth unless you can see it happening. An uneven playing field will have lots of dark dips and hidden hollows - even a few land mines and bomb craters. Shining a bright light across the field is the best way to spot them.
Roger Hunt lived in Blacksburg for seven years and worked for the town of Blacksburg's Planning Department as a town planner for the past three years. He left in December to complete his doctorate at Penn State.