Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 15, 1993 TAG: 9306150278
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
The restriction also would affect the lake's growing number of personal watercrafts.
Monday night, the Bedford County Board of Supervisors agreed to hold a public hearing but will not set a date for it until an official draft of the proposed law is written.
The ordinance would restrict boats with 20-horsepower engines or larger from traveling faster than planing speed - not more than a few miles an hour in most cases - when within 50 feet of the lake's shore or any dock extending from the shoreline.
The law could effectively prohibit personal watercrafts or water-skiing in many of the lake's coves and inlets.
Before it can become law, however, the ordinance also must be approved by Franklin and Pittsylvania counties, the two other localities that border Smith Mountain Lake.
Bedford County is the first of the three counties to be asked by the Smith Mountain Lake Policy Advisory Board to consider the measure.
The advisory board, an advocacy group for lake users, voted in May to ask that the counties consider the ordinance.
The group voted to introduce the proposed restrictions after years of fielding complaints from swimmers and homeowners about the proximity of speeding boats and personal watercrafts to the shore, said Liz Parcell, executive director of the advisory board.
Swimmers fear for their safety; homeowners are concerned about erosion to the shore along their property lines, she said.
Parcell said the advisory board decided to seek approval of the ordinance in Bedford County first and await its final action before possibly taking the measure to Franklin or Pittsylvania.
Several supervisors commented Monday that such a law could improve safety at the lake. There were questions about how the law would be enforced.
In other action, the supervisors officially ended a dispute with J.C. Sales, a used truck parts and salvage operation in Montvale.
The supervisors voted to approve an expansion request by J.C. Sales that was at the center of a lawsuit filed against the county challenging the legality of its Land-Use Guidance System zoning ordinance.
In an agreement worked out by lawyers for J.C. Sales and the county, the company will be allowed to expand and continue its operation with some conditions on fencing and planting pine trees around the salvage yard.
In exchange, J.C. Sales owners Jim Campbell and James Bowman would agree to drop their lawsuit against the county and Bedford's zoning system - known as LUGS.
Campbell and Bowman had sued the Board of Supervisors, saying they were unfairly denied an expansion under LUGS. The lawsuit would have been the 3-year-old zoning system's first court test.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.