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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 9, 1995                   TAG: 9503090060
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DO OUR REGION'S RURAL AREAS NEED STRICTER CONTROLS ON GROWTH?

THE MOUNTAINS and rural countryside in these parts are what many residents like best about living here. The countryside's very attractiveness is leading developers to buy up the land, cut it up, and sell it to eager homebuyers.

As this newspaper's five-day series on The Changing Countryside reported, the demand to live in certain growth hot-spots is pushing suburban sprawl across farmland and into the region's most rural areas, changing their character forever.

Should such growth be managed and guided? Should local governing bodies adopt and enforce tighter controls on growth? Should county comprehensive plans be given greater weight in day-to-day zoning decisions, where zoning exists at all? Do these plans reflect what you want your locality to look like in the future? Where there is no zoning, is development creating a need for it?

Or should government keep its hands off, allowing growth to be driven by market forces alone? Do attempts at long-range planning unfairly interfere with property owners' rights to use their land as they see fit? What if development then creates a demand for services - education, police protection, etc. - that drives up taxes for everybody?

We'd like to hear your thoughts. Do rural areas around the region need stricter controls on growth?

We'll publish a selection of your responses. Please limit them to 300 words or less. Send them by March 16 to Readers Forum, c/o Editorial Department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010. Or you may fax them to (703) 981-3391.

Include your address and, for verification purposes only, a telephone number where you can be reached during the day.

by CNB