Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993 TAG: 9306150382
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers has suggested that the so-called smart road could be the Roanoke valley's path to a "smart area" or "smart park," a sort of miniature version of North Carolina's Research Triangle. The valley should be setting aside land in western Roanoke County now, he says, so high-tech industries that could be expected to be attracted by research on smart-road technology would be able to locate near the project.
It's still far from certain that a smart highway will be built, of course. There is the matter of finding the necessary $82 million, and the project has been cut off from traditional sources of highway funding to ensure that less futuristic local road needs don't suffer.
Still, with Virginia Tech engineers eager to immerse themselves in smart-road research, the state transportation commissioner identifying the highway as "an important transportation project" for the area, and the Federal Highway Administration giving its blessing, it's not farfetched to say chances are reasonable that the road will be built somehow.
Given that, Bowers' call to start planning for the kind of growth that could spring up around such a cutting-edge project is not farfetched, either. It is farsighted.
As mayor of the city, Bowers can't do much, though, except talk up the idea. He is nonetheless right in perceiving the project as a potential boon for the entire region. An influx of high-tech industries could bring the kind of high-paying, low-polluting work that localities want to attract.
Bowers doesn't say precisely where this industrial park should be, how the land should be acquired or what roles the various localities should take in developing it. Nor should he, at this point. It will take a regional effort to work out these issues.
What Bowers is articulating is a vision for the future, piggybacked on former Roanoke County Supervisor Dick Robers' notion of building a smart road here, and Tech's expertise and drawing power in the field.
The mayor says he has talked some about the idea to people from other localities, but so far, no one has picked up on it. Given the valley's sorry history of pulling together to build for the future, the most farfetched part of the mayor's scenario may be the hope for a regional approach to take advantage of the opportunity. Let's hope not.
Leadership is not only good ideas, but the recognition of good ideas and the building of a consensus around them. "Smart area" or "smart Park" - whatever it's called - sounds like a smart idea. One worth at least talking about.
by CNB