Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 7, 1995 TAG: 9503070059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On his spread in Magnus Hollow, James S. Reynolds - like his daddy before him - still plows his fields using draft horses.
It's not that he's against modern technology. He has a tractor and a baler, but horses do a better job, he said. He's one of few farmers left who still hitch teams of horses to their farm machinery.
It's a blend of the old and new working together on the nearly 15-acre spread Reynolds farms on Harborwood Road behind Green Hill Park in Roanoke County.
Reynolds works in construction and farms on the side. The garden is for him and his wife, Lottie, and the hay they grow feeds the two Suffolk colts that pull the plow.
Reynolds, 86, was born across the road from his present house. Years ago, he could identify everyone who passed by the hollow.
``I used to know everybody's name from Lawrence's Market [on U.S. 460] to Glenvar. Now there's only a few families I know.''
About 35 to 40 new houses have been built in the past decade, Reynolds estimated. Harborwood Road, however, remains fairly rural, with log houses and small farms nestled in the hills.
But the winding, narrow, country road between U.S. 460 and Poor Mountain has been designated a growth area by Roanoke County. The county's comprehensive plan, updated every five years, breaks it into areas to limit growth, stabilize growth and encourage growth, a technique adopted by other counties in the region.
Harborwood made it into the growth category because of its access to highways and proximity to the new water transmission lines the county is installing. While citizen input is used for the comprehensive plans, residents don't always find out - or agree with - what has been planned.
``It's done growed enough to suit me,'' Reynolds grumbles.
Roanoke County changed the area's zoning in 1992 to encourage growth, but the farm families and longtime residents who have spent generations there aren't biting so far.
But the value of the land goes up with the rezoning, and so do property taxes, says county Planning Director Terry Harrington. So ``people begin asking, is it worth it to keep 150 acres?''
Should the county be pushing people to sell their land?
``I think we do have a responsibility to designate those growth areas,'' Harrington says. ``We're taking those proactive'' steps.
Still, he says, land values don't start rising much until land starts selling in the area.
Jeff Burdett agrees that the county needs to provide growth areas, but he wonders, why Harborwood? He lives on a piece of the 105-acre tract his in-laws own. From the spot he and his wife picked to build their house, you can probably see five counties, he says.
``To me, it's basically farm country,'' says Burdett, who has the double distinction of being a Harborwood resident and a county planner - for Bedford County.
``You've got to continuously provide areas for development,'' he says. ``Otherwise, you stagnate and decline. Citizens a lot of times don't like that. It's a fact of life.
``Whether that area is specifically appropriate, my personal opinion is it's not.''
The area is just a few minutes from U.S. 460 and 10 to 12 minutes from Interstate 81. It's near the new ValleyTech industrial park, and there are lots of large tracts of land - ideal for developing. Also, the county's new water lines from the Spring Hollow Reservoir will cross Harborwood soon.
It's also mountainous, somewhat remote and dotted with pastures, beef cattle, a few hogs and dairy cows.
``For a lot of people," Burdett says, "that land's going to stay in the family forever and ever,'' despite the county's intent.
Lottie Reynolds knows why people are starting to move to her neighborhood.
``It's just a beautiful place through here. They try to move in here to get away from the city noises.''
by CNB