Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 20, 1994 TAG: 9409220045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sure, the Mona Lisa is a painting, like the Blue Ridge Parkway is a road. But no less than da Vinci's famous lady, the 470-mile strip of asphalt weaving through the Appalachian Mountains is a work of art.
At least to Carlton Abbott, it is - and possibly to anyone who hears Abbott talk about the road his father designed more than 60 years ago.
It's all in the details, he explains. Like a brush stroke that created a smile on canvas, the shape of a curve in the parkway reveals a split-rail fence and old-fashioned barn with unspoiled ridges beyond, a momentary glimpse of the past.
Mona Lisa's mysterious smile is eternal. The view along the parkway, however, the very thing that makes it a masterpiece, is not.
``Little by little, we're losing the cultural landscape,'' Abbott said recently. ``Many of these buildings are fading away now. The countryside is changing.''
Not only are the old farms disappearing, new structures are popping up along the parkway - single homes, subdivisions, commercial buildings, even high-rises - that alter the character of the national scenic highway.
Perhaps nowhere is the change happening faster than in Roanoke County.
Last week, Abbott, a Williamsburg architect who specializes in parks and historic preservation, gave an informal talk to county officials. They are searching for ways to retain the views along the 27 miles of parkway that pass through the county. For three hours, he clicked through hundreds of slides showing every aspect of the parkway, from sweeping vistas to close-ups of fence posts.
Note the stonework in a bridge, he said, how each rock sits snugly against the other so mortar isn't needed. The masonry reflects the old homesteads built by Scotch-Irish immigrants who settled in the nooks and crannies of these mountains.
See how a tunnel curves, so as not to disrupt the graceful movement of the parkway as it weaves from one side of the ridge to the other. There are few straight stretches on the parkway, Abbott said.
See, too, how fences line the road here and fade into the distance there, giving the illusion of driving through open countryside without boundaries, even though the corridor is owned and administered by the National Park Service.
Note the subtle contour of a median, he said, the 4-inch rise of the grassy spot that bends the shadows spreading across it.
``Those are the sorts of forms that give the Blue Ridge Parkway its grace,'' he said. ``There isn't a road in America that has as much intrinsic design as this one does.''
After the slide show, one county planner said she believed she had ``new eyes'' with which to look at the parkway.
The next day, Abbott and the county officials drove up to the parkway to see some of the dozen or so ``critical viewsheds'' the county has identified. The first stop was at mile marker 126 - a long, green pasture. Sections of cement water mains followed the rolling pasture up to an open ridgeline.
The property belongs to Len Boone, who has begun work on a subdivision on the former Beasley farm that straddled the parkway. Some of those high-priced homes will be in plain view.
Boone's plan, unveiled two years ago, inspired a public backlash, many lawsuits, and a sort of introspection on the county's part to reassess its goals for the parkway corridor, an environmental and tourism asset.
It also prompted planners, preservationists and government officials to form the Coalition for the Blue Ridge Parkway. The two-state coalition hopes to come up with strategies on which everyone can agree, including developers, to conserve the parkway's scenic and cultural integrity.
With more than 4,000 property owners bordering the road in 29 counties - many without any zoning - finding common ground won't be easy.
``We're going to tread very lightly when it comes to telling people how to manage their property interests,'' said Jim Fox, a National Park Service land resources specialist for the parkway.
The agency is worried about the impact of Boone's development on the parkway, whose most important resource is the view, Fox said.
Boone wants to build water and sewer lines under the parkway to serve the south side of the former farm, which he also plans to develop. The county has asked the Park Service for permission to build the lines, which would be large enough to serve more than just Boone's subdivision.
Those negotiations are on hold, Fox said. The parkway has broad, but not unlimited, discretion to approve or nix utility and road crossings. Each request is looked at in light of the agency's overriding mandate, Fox said - to protect the scenery of the scenic highway.
``Are we sowing the seeds of our own destruction if we approve this permit?'' Fox asked.
While the Park Service may have some influence over Boone's plans, ultimately it cannot control what happens on federal land. Local governments have more influence through zoning and property taxes.
Roanoke County plans to devise an overlay district for its part of the parkway that would require certain design elements for new construction. The county is also considering some sort of tax credit as an incentive for property owners to preserve their farms and woodlands, said County Administrator Elmer Hodge. Hodge, who is active in the coalition, invited Abbott to share his perspective with county officials.
Ultimately, it'll be up to the landowners to conserve the masterpiece of natural and rural beauty that is the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Toward that end, the National Park Service contracted with Abbott to produce a ``how-to'' book for landowners in the parkway corridor who want to build a home, put up a new fence, add on to the back of the farmhouse, build a subdivision or make other changes.
``We're not here to make it a static artifact on the wall,'' Abbott said. Simple things can reduce the impact of modern growth - choosing a gray slate or light-brown roof to blend in with the woods, using traditional, round fence posts instead of the factory-squared ones, designing driveways with the same graceful curve as the parkway, landscaping with native vegetation instead of New Mexican yucca plants.
The 150-page book is due out early next year. Boone, who sat in on last week's slide presentation, asked how to get a copy, and later exchanged business cards with Abbott.
Abbott will present a condensed version of his slide show Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Vinton War Memorial.
Parkway Facts
Established: June 30, 1936.
Headquarters: Asheville, N.C.
Length: 470 miles, linking the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks. The road has 156 bridges and 26 tunnels.
Lowest point: 650 feet at the James River.
Highest Point: ^,053 feet at Richland Balsam in N.C.
Access: 126 public roads cross the parkway, making thsose intersections vulnerable to development.
Land: 80,000 total acres owned by the National Park Service, 2,000 additional acres held in conservation easements by NPS.
Visitors: 22 million per year, four times as many as visit yellowstone AND Ellis Island.
Neighbors: About 4,000 owners' property abuts the parkway. 29 counties border the parkway.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***