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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 23, 1993                   TAG: 9311230412
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: W. ROBERT HERBERT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CITY IS TACKLING DOWNTOWN EYESORES

IN RESPONSE to Clinton S. Morse's Nov. 14 letter to the editor entitled ``Get rid of downtown's eyesores'' concerning the appearance of the area in downtown around the First Union Tower and the City Market:

Morse isn't alone in his desire for improvements in this regard.

The burned-out Hotel Earle has been an eyesore we all wish could have been addressed long ago. Initially, the structure was not damaged to the extent that it could be declared a hazard and, while unattractive, the city had no authority to order its demolition. Many attempts were made to work with the property owner(s) to devise a plan to renovate this structure, but to no avail.

Just recently, though, our building commissioner's office has issued a demolition order, and the owner has a limited amount of time to advise the city of specific plans for the building. If we do not receive a satisfactory response, court action would be the next step.

The removal of the remaining portions of the Jefferson Street leg of the viaduct are dependent on other projects. The original viaduct demolition was only sufficient for construction of the First Union Tower building. We knew another phase of demolition would be required. However, the reinforcing steel and beams within the Jefferson Street leg of the viaduct are connected with similar portions of Williamson Road. To complete this, demolition will necessitate closing the southbound lanes of Williamson Road for an extensive period of x time. This is such an important traffic artery to downtown, we feel we must delay this work until the proposed new bridge over the railroad tracks at Second Street Southwest has been completed. That's currently scheduled to begin in July 1994 and it will take 18 months to complete.

The pending renovations of Hotel Roanoke, a new pedestrian bridge connecting the hotel with the market area, and a proposed railside linear park between the market area and the Transportation Museum will be tremendous opportunities to further improve the attractiveness of our downtown. We will continue to work on the remaining unattractive features such as Morse so appropriately identified in his letter.

\ W. Robert Herbert is city manager for Roanoke.

by CNB