Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310210117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A busy intersection, three-lane roads, traffic lights, plenty of cars, an Exxon, Howard Johnson's, Kentucky Fried Chicken . . .
And he asked, "Where is this?"
U.S. 460 in Montgomery County? The Troutville exit on Interstate 81? Williamson Road in Roanoke?
Pittsburgh? Peoria?
The slide could have been taken just about anywhere, and it drove home McMahon's point to his audience Tuesday night.
"Unplanned growth will sever our sense of place, and turn the Roanoke Valley . . . into Anytown, U.S.A."
McMahon is a nationally known land-use planning expert and director of the green way program for The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit group based in Arlington.
His talk was sponsored by Valley Beautiful, Virginia's Explore Park and several other local preservation groups.
"I like to describe myself as a pro-business conservationist," McMahon said. In his almost 20 years of experience in land-use issues, he has touted the notion that development is good, but that it must be planned within the context of a community's identity and within the context of the surroundings.
Throughout his talk, McMahon flashed slides of scenic and historic resources across the country that have been overtaken by unplanned growth.
A stone marking the birthplace of author Thomas Wolfe - smack in the middle of a parking lot. The majestic ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains - with the shopping mecca of Pigeon Forge in the foothills.
He also touched on a hot local topic: developer Len Boone's plan to build homes along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke County.
Boone has permission to build up to 200 house on 83 acres adjacent to the parkway. County planners say that perhaps a dozen houses would be visible from the road.
In all these examples, McMahon said, it's important not just to preserve the resource, but the context that lends character and charm to the resource. For the parkway - the most visited unit of the National Park System, generating $2 billion a year for localities in tourist dollars - the adjacent scenic views make it worth visiting, he said.
And converting farmland to subdivisions is not necessarily desirable for a locality's finances. McMahon said that in general, for every $1 in taxes that residential growth generates, $1.23 is required in schools, fire and police protection and other services.
On the contrary, farms may require only 23 cents of services for every $1 in taxes they pay, he said. "Will Roanoke County's taxes go up if it develops farms, or will they go down?" he asked.
But preserving farms, views and other resources takes planning, he said. "What is scenic today will not be scenic tomorrow by accident."
He went on to show more slides - pictures of towns and businesses that have achieved a balance between growth and preserving their character, their "sense of place."
Simple things such as saving mature trees, restricting the size and number of commercial signs and designing buildings of indigenous material and of an architectural style that fits in with the area can help retain a community's identity, he said.
by CNB