Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412060011
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN MCCUE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In more contemporary jargon, she was talking about sustainable development - making sure you had enough vitamins to grow and stay healthy, while sustaining the food supply for those after you.
It's the same principle that some say ought to be applied to our natural resources, whether by a developer planning a subdivision or a company locating a new factory. Sustainable development means economic growth that preserves or improves air, water and soil quality for future generations.
"Let's face it. We've got to do it," said Donnie W. Slusher, a land surveyor in Thaxton in Bedford County. Slusher is one of six citizens serving on a state task force on sustainable development, along with 10 legislators and two Cabinet members.
The group had its long-delayed first meeting on Nov. 23, although six of the legislators were absent. The task force heard presentations from folks around the state who are working on sustainable development programs, from a cherrystone clam farmer in Northhampton County on the Eastern Shore, to ecologically-sound logging in the Clinch River Valley.
"It's opened my eyes to a lot of what the world situation is, environmentally," Slusher said.
One of the speakers was Robert Manetta, a lawyer for Carilion Health System of Roanoke, who is working on sustainable development as part of the year-old New Century Council, a group trying to forge an economic development plan for the Roanoke and New River valleys.
His subcommittee has met about five times and some members still are far apart on the scope of the issue, he said.
"We haven't agreed to our definitions yet," Manetta said this week. "It's a work in progress."
Defining sustainable development is not easy. The legislative task force had 66 definitions to ponder, Slusher said. "And then they offered us two or three more."
Sustainable development, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder.
At least four organizations in Virginia are doing it, as are a dozen major U.S. cities, and several more in Europe. Half a dozen states plan to do it, and all nine provinces in Canada, too. Each one is different, tailored to the communities' physical and cultural makeup. But all strive for essentially the same thing - economic growth that is sustainable because it maintains environmental quality.
In 1994, the General Assembly took its first step by appointing the task force to assess current initiatives, develop a statewide strategic plan and recommend action for state and local governments and citizen groups, "especially in rural areas of the commonwealth." The task force was to deliver its findings to the General Assembly in January.
"I don't know whether we'll be able to meet that deadline," said Del. David Brickley, D-Woodbridge, who introduced the bill and is chairman of the task force. The group will meet again in early January and decide whether to ask for an extension, he said. They have not spent much of their allotted $10,500, so they don't have to ask for more money.
There has been talk of adding more members with more expertise to the task force, said Suellen Keiner, a lawyer with the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Law Institute, which last year wrote a blueprint for sustainable development in Virginia. She is not a task force member, but has helped the staff and recently met with Manetta and others on the New Century Council.
It's too early to say whether the task force will succeed, she said. "People who care about this are nervous because they just don't think that much can be done," she said, but she is remaining optimistic.
Slusher agreed that it's almost certainly too late to introduce legislation in 1995. "I think they realize this is not going to be cured overnight with a Band-Aid or a tourniquet, either one."
He believes one of the biggest challenges will be to bring people on board the sustainable-development train. Some people are extreme "environmental wackos" who don't want to cut down a tree, he said. At the other end are people whose only goal is the bottom line.
"I think the two have got to compromise their positions a little bit so we can have a sustainable economy."
Slusher gave an example of sustainable development for the Roanoke Valley. Say there's a beautiful farm that is going to be subdivided. Instead of requiring that the farm be cut into tracts of 1 acre, 5 acres or 10 acres each, as most subdivision ordinances do, local governments should allow and encourage "clustering" the homes.
That means the same number of homes would be built, but on one part of the property, Slusher explained. This way much of the farm is left intact, preserving more open space, as much a natural resource as pure mountain spring water.
By the same token, infrastructure - utility lines and roads - costs less because there's less of it. "Don't spread your people out so far you need 1,000 feet of sewer line to serve three people," he said.
Slusher still is wading through all the reading on sustainable development task force members were given, and is starting to talk to others in his community about this new-fangled notion.
by CNB