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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994                   TAG: 9405230095
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE GROWTH DEBATE: PLAN NOW OR PAY LATER

Will it be after the dairy farms that have defined Riner for generations have disappeared?

Will it be after Floyd County's hillsides within shouting distance of the Blue Ridge Parkway are dotted with mobile homes and ranch houses?

Will it be after U.S. 460, Virginia 114 and other busy roads in the New River Valley are a multimile sprawl of hamburger joints and paved parking lots like some endless unplanned Williamson Road in Roanoke?

Let's get one thing straight. Being FOR planning does not mean you are AGAINST growth. It simply means you are for sensible growth. It means you don't want to see hodgepodge growth in inappropriate areas that will cost us as taxpayers in the future.

Most of us want to see growth come to the New River Valley. I wouldn't have a job without the commercial development around our office here at U.S. 460 and Virginia 114. I may be nostalgic about the small town of Blacksburg I grew up in during the '60s, but I'm not fool enough to want to go back to when the only place to shop was the Leggett's in downtown Christiansburg.

But many people, who otherwise would support a healthy growth rate for the New River Valley, have qualms about growth because they don't have confidence that it will be guided in a thoughtful manner that will enhance our communities.

I can understand why. In Montgomery County, after two years of work and public hearings by its planning department, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors rejected a mild open-space plan designed to help the county guide development in rural areas. The plan was not anti-development. In fact it would have allowed innovative development plans such as clustering houses so much of the land could be left in its natural state - preserving the very rural flavor homeowners seek in moving to the county.

The open-space plan went down to defeat. Now the county is wrestling with its water and sewer policies, which are allowing developers to build subdivisions without tapping into public water and sewer systems.

Can the supervisors and their advisory boards devise development policies and land use and zoning ordinances that will intelligently guide growth?

This is not an easy task. It might involve coming up with a variety of strategies, ranging from innovative zoning laws to financial incentives such as buying public easements or viewsheds to preserve our county's rural character.

The supervisors, most of whom have rural roots themselves, could use their insights and contacts to help shape policies that farmers and rural landowners, who have cared for this land often for generations, might see as a protection for them, rather than a threat to the value of their land.

Two of Montgomery County's supervisors expressed their outrage this month that a planning memo dared to raise the issue of whether the county was going to "stay ahead of, or at least abreast of, development" or whether it would simply continue to react. Why this outrage? Perhaps the memo hit too close to home.

Obviously, its easier to react rather than to stay ahead of developments. We deal with that reality every day in our offices. We put out daily brush fires rather than clearing the time to grapple with the long-range issues that could make a significant difference in our companies.

Likewise, it's simpler for county supervisors to vote on yet another subdivision request or a budget item than wrestle with the long-term, and incredibly difficult issue, of how intelligently to guide the county's development while still considering the rights of the local property owners.

Although the pace of development and the debate is more intense in Montgomery County now, this is an issue facing every county in the New River Valley.

But if our county officials, and we as county residents, don't wake up soon and confront this issue, we're going to find the barn door has been open too long, that our pastures and mountain views have been trampled, and its too late by years to protect those very things we mutually cherish about our counties.