Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 27, 1993 TAG: 9307070438
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Don Terp
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
As for the observation that the valley stopped growing in the middle '80s, I can offer a personal observation. In the late '70s and early '80s, the price of real estate in the North (Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York) was soaring. This had not yet started in the Roanoke Valley. People could
sell their homes here and move to the valley, buy a home and have money left over. By the mid '8Os, real estate prices in the Roanoke area started up.
Real estate here was no longer the "buy" it had been. Instead of $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000 for a house, the prices jumped to $100,000, $135,000, $150,000 and higher. Most current new construction is going to be in the $200,000-and-up range.
Certainly, builders' and developers' learning they could sell for higher prices was a factor. In addition, however, the limited capacity of the Roanoke sewer plant put a crimp in unlimited construction, inviting the builders to go for more expensive houses. Another factor was a water shortage in a
small portion of southwest Roanoke County, because builders built where there was little or no water available. The outcome of this was the Spring Hollow Reservoir and its $185 million (including interest) tax burden. It's not likely that east and north county will ever see any Spring Hollow water, and yet the home owners in these areas are paying through the nose (not only in water rates, but also in utility taxes) so the builders in Southwest County can have a source of water. Where is the value?
The plus on this is that the valley hasn't been overbuilt like Hendersonville and Brevard, N.C. A blessing in disguise.
In the Roanoke valley, upscale young people are the target market, not the seniors moving down to warmer climates, although seniors continued to support the housing market in the valley in a more modest way. Just as real estate prices started to rise here, prices dropped up North. People who purchased houses there during the boom of the '70s and early '80s were stuck with property worth less than they paid for it.
Those who earlier had purchased homes in the Northeast found that the break-even point had moved out of sight, and they were trapped. Moving to the Roanoke Valley was no longer a value for them.
When we look at the Roanoke Valley, we must look at value. What is here that would be valuable to someone (be it a business or an individual) moving into the valley?
Virginia has a right-to-work law, which should be an attraction to some companies. In the valley and surrounding area, we have an able and willing work force of pleasant people, another asset. Beautiful mountains, excellent climate and good roads connecting us with major centers are also points of value.
So what's wrong? Why aren't people beating our doors down just to live in our idyllic setting? It's a matter of value, real or perceived. We have priced ourselves out of the market.
Although the Roanoke Valley is traditionally cited as having a low cost of living, it isn't the value it once was, because the main ingredient, compara- tively low-cost housing, is no longer available. When one compares food, utilties (except electric power), clothing, and other items that make up the cost-of-living index, we're pretty much in line with the rest of the country.
When one compares water rates, Roanoke County will have the distinction next year of having the highest rate in Virginia. The last 20 percent increase programmed in for July 1994 will do it.
Resources in a metropolitan area of 235,000 people cannot support the costs of government we are burdened with. Roanoke city is scratching all the time and Roanoke County should be. While the household income in the Roanoke Valley is averaging just over $39,000 a year, our two top administrators make more than twice that figure. (They alo have a lot of expensive perks.) Have we gained so much in population that the governments must expand (read that taxes) at the rate they have?
We don't need one government in the Roanoke Valley to be efficient. Actually, several are advantageous, since, like children, each has its own personality. Our governments are not delivering value. The constant
search for money sources (taxes), and the addition of personnel when the population hasn't changed appreciably, is a burden on the taxpayers. In fact, one doesn't have to go too far into the surrounding counties to see how some people have solved this cost-of-government problem - they have moved.
Every valley government says it plans, but where are the plans? Does anyone except the planners know what the plans are and what they intend to accomplish?
To be effective, plans must be shared. Did any long-range planning go into the now-famous Roanoke County Travelers Building purchase (the new county office building)? That deal moved so fast, the supervisors didn't even have time to put it to a taxpayers' vote. Instead, they pulled off a fiscal feat with a lease- back arrangement that avoided a referendum.
Did they know that the taxpayers wouldn't approve such a `bargain?` With the Travelers Building purchase, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors presented the citizens with a total of $12 million in debt (including interest) by the time they got finished with all the remodeling and moving. No citizen participation there, and they wonder why the citizens are fed up with government. Where is the value?
Just a few months after the Travelers Building was purchased for the county offices, the CorEast building in downtown Roanoke (seven stories high) sold for $750,000. Did the county citizens receive value? The Travelers Building is only four stories high. Is it worth 220 percent more?
In the city, they tied up the taxpayers in two pension plans, not for the workers, but for the elite top five administrators. Where is the value in these city and county attempts to put one over on the taxpayers? The taxpayers deserve better treatment.
The governments are concerned, and at a loss to understand the lack of confidence the taxpayers have in their ability to administer the stewardship bestowed upon them by their election to the Board of Supervisors and the City Council. Why are they having such a problem?
The answer is obvious. I have attended many meetings where citizens from both Roanoke city and county were present. `That's not my problem` was the sharp retort when the subject of the other government was brought up.
No wonder organizations for citizens of the city and the county duplicate each other. A lack of concern and support for one's fellow man is the answer.
Why don't more citizens come out to public meetings? First, everyone knows that, in the valley, public meetings are a `done deal.` By law every governing body is required to hold them. However, holding them after all the work has been done and the governing body's mind is made up is not against the law.
In Washington, they talk about special-interest groups as the fourth arm of the government after the legislative, judicial and executive branches. The valley also has a powerful special-interest group, the builders and developers.
At the Raonoke County Board of Supervisors meeting on December 15, 1992, I watched a local developer take 25 minutes of the board's time, getting up on stage with them and unrolling an armload of blueprints. At the same meeting, taxpayers were grudgingly allotted three minutes each, for the same purpose.
Why were the taxpayers treated so shabbily? Better, why was the developer treated so royally? Roanoke County goes by the golden rule: `Them that has the gold makes the rules.`
The behavior of our officials is important to the value of the valley. People talk. People tell their friends and family back where they came from what's going on.
Our strongest advertising comes from the people who live here. It may not be what the governments want to hear, but it's good advertising in the sense that it is believable and relied upon.
If we want the valley to be successful, we must ceate value in government and citizen involvement. We need quality people to run for public office. We need citizens to participate in our government and advise our officials as to our needs and the directions we want them to follow.
There are too many people sitting on the sidelines saying I can't get involved; I don't understand; I can't be bothered with all that politics stuff.
Remember, you're in it whether you want to be or not. You pay taxes and suffer at the hands of these `politicians.` You'd better tell them what you think and how you feel. Everyone has to get into the act and make a contribution.
You must get involved and add value to the valley. There isn't much time left. The more the valley declines, the more difficult it will be to bring it back.
There are examples all around us of towns and cities that once were thriving communities. They are now ghost towns and cities - a sad commentary on the local governments' abilities to administer and control growth and use. They were unable to create demand and value.
How will this happen in the Roanoke Valley? People will move out because they no longer see value here. People will no longer move here because they find better value in other communities.
We all have a job to do. Let's plan to give this valley value and set it right again.
\ Don Terp is a retiree who lives in Roanoke County.\ EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an occasional series in which Southwest Virginians and others offer their comments on the perils and promises confronting this region and its future.
by CNB