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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993                   TAG: 9311030270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ZONING DEFEATED OVERWHELMINGLY

3 of 3 precincts reporting.

Yes 401 (34 percent)

769 (66 percent)

Blackwater

4 of 4 precincts reporting.

Yes 668 (36 percent)

1,182 (64 percent)

Snow Creek

4 of 4 precincts reporting.

Yes 477 (33 percent)

952 (67 percent)

The Franklin County anti-zoning forces that awakened with a bang in December when the Board of Supervisors tried to institute land-use zoning could have delivered a knockout punch at the polls.

Voters in the Blue Ridge, Blackwater and Snow Creek voting districts sent the supervisors a resounding message: Don't institute land-use zoning here.

The votes could delay for years the county supervisors' attempt to unify Franklin County under one zoning law. The referendums were only "advisory" - meaning the board does not have to adhere to the outcome - but board members have said they would be compelled to take the voters' advice.

The supervisors in December approved countywide zoning, but bent in the face of a hostile 200-person crowd. The board rescinded its vote and asked the General Assembly to pass a bill allowing advisory referendums.

Perhaps most surprising is failure of the zoning referendum in the Snow Creek district, where the Shredded Products' controversial "fluff dump" was able to locate due to the lack of zoning.

Liquor by the drink passes

Union Hall

3 of 3 precincts reporting.

961 (52 percent)i

No 891 (48 percent)

Restaurants on the Franklin County side of Smith Mountain Lake finally will be able to sell liquor by the drink after voters in the Union Hall district approved it in a referendum.

The lake had been split until Tuesday, with restaurants in the Gills Creek district being able to sell liquor and restaurants in the district next door prohibited from selling it.

Tuesday's vote ends a long battle for liquor by the drink at the lake. In 1988, Franklin County voters rejected a referendum that would have allowed restaurants to sell liquor by the drink, but voters in Union Hall and Gills Creek districts - the two districts at the lake - were in favor.

In 1991, with Franklin County in mind, the General Assembly approved a bill that allowed individual voting districts to hold referendums on liquor by the drink. Gills Creek voters approved it that year.

Keywords:
ELECTION