Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 30, 1993                   TAG: 9312010341
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE 'Z' WORD, AGAIN, IN FRANKLIN

They can say they want to end Franklin County's balkanization.

Since 1988, residents in the three above-mentioned districts have been treated effectively like second-class citizens. That was the year the Board of Supervisors decided to have zoning ordinances apply to land use in four voting districts, but not in these three.

Of course, some residents like it that way. They'd like it even better if Franklin could be, in its entirety, the wide-open expanse of farmland that it was 100 years ago.

But, like it or not, the county's character is rapidly changing from rural to suburban. Continued growth and development are virtually certain, and not only in Smith Mountain Lake's immediate vicinity. This growth needs to be reasonably controlled and guided.

Meanwhile, the remaining rural are as are more vulnerable than ever to inappropriate land-uses that would threaten the rural scenery and diminish nearby property values.

Landowners in the Blue Ridge, Blackwater and Snow Creek districts should not be left defenseless in the face of helter-skelter, environmentally undesirable development that could put anything from toxic dumps to moonshine stills in their back yards.

Granted, the referendum on whether the three districts want land-use zoning to protect their property values is advisory only.

Granted, too, it's a referendum that should not even appear on the ballot.

Had supervisors lived up to their responsibilities, they would have ended the zoning disparity months ago. Cravenly, they did not. Twice on the brink of approving countywide zoning, they finally cowed in the face of angry crowds that showed up at meetings to oppose zoning. The supervisors ducked for cover, by getting the General Assembly's OK to have advisory referendums on the "Z" word in the three unzoned districts.

That is their shame. Never mind that now. The issue is at hand.

A social and geographical rationale was invoked to gain partial zoning of Franklin in 1988, effectively dividing the county. On Tuesday, Franklin voters should "advise" their supervisors to quit stalling and extend to all residents the protections that only some residents now enjoy.