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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994                   TAG: 9408190013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MONTGOMERY

FRICTION between rural and urban interests is evident again in Montgomery County, where super-visors are at odds over whether to amend subdivision rules to bring tighter control over development. As in every once-rural county experiencing residential growth, Montgomery must come to grips with the problems of urbanizing - before the public is stiffed for the cost of cleaning up mistakes.

The specific changes under consideration would (1) eliminate exceptions to a county ordinance that requires homes close to public water and sewer lines to be connected to them,

(2) impose stricter requirements on the location of septic fields and (3) increase the minimum lot size for land zoned agricultural from one-half acre to 20 acres. The last, in particular, seems nothing more than common sense. What is unreasonable about expecting development on half-acre lots to follow residential zoning standards?

A farmer's wealth is his land, though, and it is unremarkable that any restrictions that might make farmland less desirable for development are viewed with hostility. Still, local governments have an unavoidable duty to plan for the future of entire communities. To allow growth to occur now in a way that would haunt the tax-paying public later would be nonfeasance.

by CNB