Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410210047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But the "green" isn't necessarily money. Instead, speakers during a forum at the Virginia Museum of Transportation were urging regional "greenways," dedicated linear open spaces connecting public parks, schools and other places of natural beauty.
"A primary deciding factor for most of these [urban refugees] is that the cities that they move to must have all the amenities of a big city without all the problems. For those fed up with a sea of asphalt, greenways are a welcome oasis," said Bob Fetzer, president of the Roanoke Regional Homebuilders Association, who organized the meeting.
Once thought of as a purely environmental tactic, greenways now are being embraced by business people who see them as a quality-of-life feature that's an important ingredient in economic development efforts.
"This greenway concept is just as important to us locally as this superhighway, this high-tech highway" connecting Interstate 81 to U.S. 460 near Blacksburg, Fetzer said.
Because they wind in long stretches through communities and among neighborhoods, greenways are easily accessible to greater numbers of people than traditional parks, said Sam Rogers, a landscape architect and professor at the University of Tennessee. He helped spearhead greenway developments in Chattanooga and Knoxville.
The potential exists here, thanks to such natural resources as the Blue Ridge Mountains, rivers and streams. Abandoned railroad rights of way also are natural sites for linear parks because the corridors already exist, Fetzer said.
Among the possible greenways mentioned were links between the Roanoke and New River valleys, and a network of defined paths and open spaces linking the area's 68 parks and plazas with schools and downtown.
Unfortunately, despite more than 70 years of various plans, the Roanoke region - and Roanoke in particular - has lagged behind efforts of some other Southern cities, Fetzer said.
"It seems like we've done a lot of planning and study, although we can't get going on it," said city planner Evie Gunter.
Raleigh, N.C., for instance, has been building a network of 200 miles of bike trails, walking paths and linear open spaces that it expects to complete by the year 2000.
Chattanooga, Tenn., has a 2-mile river walk along its downtown waterfront, part of a 20-mile linear park running along the Tennessee River.
Closer to home, Montgomery County is developing the Huckleberry Trail, a 6-mile hiking and biking trail from Blacksburg to the New River Valley Mall. A similar greenway effort to link major towns in Giles County is under way.
The benefits also are quantifiable. Properties near greenways increase in value and sell more quickly. Tax revenues often rise, particularly after urban greenway parks spur business spinoffs.
Vegetation in the corridors absorbs air pollution and produces oxygen. And along streams, greenways filter storm runoff from pavement and agricultural fields and reduce the potential for damage by floods, Rogers said.
The meeting attracted representatives from such groups as Valley Beautiful, Explore Park, the Roanoke Valley Garden Club, Friends of the Roanoke River, the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, the New Century Council and the Fifth Planning District Commission.
Elected and appointed officials from Salem, Roanoke and Roanoke County also attended.
All of them are key to greenway efforts, Roger said. In fact, grass-roots-style greenway movements are more likely to result in action than government-led initiatives.
In Tennessee, the greenway movement didn't take hold initially because "we had [a government-led] approach. But it started to happen when we found a spark plug," a community activist who pushed the issue relentlessly, Roger said.
"If we involve everybody in something like this, then the whole community can come together in a positive way," he said.
by CNB