Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404250133
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BURNETT HATCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When I returned several years ago to Roanoke, the city of my childhood, it in many respects was as I had left it. Yet somehow it failed to exhibit the well-cared-for and proud appearance I had remembered.
The downtown area was dying. Roads needed resurfacing. Median strips needed attention. Cracked and broken curbs needed replacement. Landscaping, except for Elmwood Park and the flower beds in front of the Municipal Building and one or two office buildings, was sparse and, for the most part, ill-tended.
Those parts of Roanoke so impressive in my childhood were deteriorating. The grand old houses on Orchard Hill had been demolished. In their stead stood a hospital with a large, treeless parking lot. Southwest, which once had been a well-kept and imposing neighborhood with many old homes of irreplaceable historic value, had become a mixed bag of houses in desperate need of repair and a number of small, indifferently conceived office buildings with stark parking lots.
My return to Roanoke was from Orlando, Fla., one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. I had moved to Orlando when the town was about the size of Roanoke, and I watched it grow from a sleepy, laid-back Florida town of medium-income families into a vibrant, wealthy, beautiful city bursting with promise and civic pride.
When I, with my architects, wanted to build a couple of unusual houses, objections were raised by ultraconservative stand-patters. But just as other builders with new and attractive ideas were discovering, I found that, through compromise and a showing that what I wanted to build would be an asset to the neighborhood, those who raised the loudest objections found the finished houses highly acceptable and conceded their beauty.
Aware of the civic value in preserving structures of historic, architectually redemptive value, I fought against and prevented a lovely old house in the Winter Park area of Orlando from being leveled. My efforts were subsequently successful in its sale, restoration and ultimate selection as the year's Designer's Show House. A building of genuine architectual value had been saved and given a facelift for future appreciative eyes.
Some of Orlando's oldest buildings are on a small lake near the heart of downtown. A couple of blocks from where these buildings stand, houses had been condemned to erect a freeway. The condemnations had left the location in a dreadful mess, with the probability that all these old buildings soon would be bulldozed, and boring, multi-story towers of glass and slab would be built in their place.
Not long after arriving in Orlando, I purchased a big old house looking out over this pretty little lake. The surrounding conditions of dilapidation appeared no hindrance to the eventual value of the property, not only because of its proximity to downtown but also because the nearby houses were some of Orlando's oldest. With the assistance of a couple of capable young architects, a small, award-winning condominium project was eventually constructed on the site.
I mention these Orlando experiences to show that what may appear to be an impossible task at the outset - particularly when success depends upon the consensus approval of governing bodies - can be accomplished, provided there is conviction in the hearts and minds of those requesting change that the innovations sought will be an asset to the community.
Even more important, those who seek change must be able to show with clarity the effect the change will have on its surroundings. It takes a driving persistence to convince the powers that be that the change will be of genuine, long-term value to the area affected.
After all the obstacles had been overcome - city council's objections, the zoning committee's impassiveness and the utility companies' negations - the completed project revitalized a doomed portion of the city and became the main factor in the preservation of Orlando's oldest buildings, causing the city to designate the area Orlando's Historic District.
What has all this to do with growth in Western Virginia? Everything. Opposition to expansion and development can be quelled, to a large extent, by assuring those averse to change that all which is known and familiar need not be sacrificed when the growth occurs through visionary planning.
Big Salt Lick grew into the city of Roanoke because the Norfolk and Western Railway located its headquarters here. This railroad has now changed its corporate nature, becoming the Norfolk and Southern Railway with headquarters elsewhere. While there remains, at this time considerable remnants of the N&W's prodigy of security, how much longer it will last is highly speculative. If for no other reason than this uncertainty, other this is done immediately, of Roanoke and its surrounding areas are in grave jeopardy.
To give assurance that growth will enhance the quality of life, not endanger it, those who make the decisions must have far-reaching and clear vision of the consequences of change. There must be a thorough understanding of where, and how, growth is to be encouraged and controlled before the growth occurs. Otherwise, growth in its inevitability will follow a chaotic pattern, causing complications, expense and headaches for years to come.
For more than 30 years, many of Roanoke's better-educated and brightest young inhabitants have been leaving because they were unable to find satisfactory job opportunities. - not because they wanted to leave the area.
The young adults of today become the business and civic leaders of tomorrow. Western Virginia depends upon them for tomorrow's vitality and wealth. Jobs must be available for them.
The Industrial Revolution has long since past. Today, industry does not mean big factories belching black smoke or dumping pollution into nearby streams. Industry now means small, well-organized plants and service-related activities, all operating in a compatible and highly controlled environment.
To attract companies, more is needed than an appealing site. There must be water, utilities, transportation, money sources from local financial institutions and, above all, adequate tax incentives from the governing bodies.
Attracting industry is not impossible so long as the various entities involved can come together in a cooperative and coordinated manner, willing to compromise when self-interest rears its ugly head. It takes clear and mature vision to court industrial growth, and wisdom to plan and control it in a manner benefical to everyone.
Fear that Western Virginia will lose its agrarian charateristics and its slow pace is well-founded, because growth will result in changing both. Growth does mean more people on the highways, in the shopping centers, schools, and so forth.
But along with this inconvenience comes a more stable job market. More people means a greater exchange of ideas, interests and increased cultural activity. Roanoke, for example, could serve as the embryo for cultural expansion in all of Western Virginia, ending up as the cultural center for the entire state of Virginia. The potential is there to be taken advantage of.
Mary Burnett Hatch is a lawyer in Roanoke, and also a Florida real-estate broker.
by CNB