Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504050063
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She's one woman who stood against the system, the powers that be, the establishment - whatever you want to call a society ruled by rules. Her solitary struggle to get electricity to her little trailer evokes a certain romanticism appealing to the rebellious streak in the American character.
When our eyes stop misting, though, we ought to see Frances Lamb as one woman against her neighbors - and against the law.
Lamb is the woman who moved her single-wide trailer onto the Roanoke County side of a tract of land straddling the Roanoke-Montgomery county line. She put it where there was an existing trailer pad, well and septic system, which was sensible. Trouble is, she put it there in defiance of Roanoke County's zoning ordinance.
In 1986, the county banned single-wide trailers outside trailer parks. Initially, this proved no obstacle for Lamb, a mere bureaucratic delay. She simply applied for and received a permit from Montgomery County that allowed her to get electricity hooked up - if, a Montgomery official says he made it clear, the trailer was on that side of the county line.
It isn't. Neighbors in Roanoke County complained. Montgomery voided the permit.
Lamb had a cold winter - warming her trailer with kerosene heaters that she turned off before falling asleep; sending the grandson she is raising to live with a babysitter. It would have been a sad fix - if she hadn't got into it herself by trying to maneuver around a zoning ordinance designed to protect the common good, or at least neighbors' property values.
Lamb's neighbors didn't want a single-wide trailer next door because they feared it would devalue their homes. Now it probably will.
For Lamb will be able to stay in her twilight zone. Statewide legislation passed during this year's General Assembly session, and signed by Gov. George Allen, requires localities to allow single-wide manufactured homes (a.k.a. trailers) on land zoned for agriculture. Lamb's tract is zoned AG3.
The county will have to amend its ordinance to comply with the new state law, which goes into effect July 1. Till then, county officials - who had gone to extraordinary lengths to deal with Lamb in a humanitarian way while trying to protect the integrity of the zoning ordinance - will let her settle in. Any other course in the intervening three months would be pointless harassment.
But what interest, you may wonder, does the state have in dictating what localities must allow under their zoning classifications? That's easy. The mandate was initiated and pushed by the Virginia Manufactured Homes Association.
by CNB