Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504080031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A year and a half ago, when the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors rezoned land along the Blue Ridge Parkway for residential development, outraged preservationists and angry developers eyed each other with the suspicion of blood enemies.
That anyone would defile a national treasure by turning its adjacent lands into just another piece of suburbia struck one side as profane. That anyone without a direct financial stake in the property would presume to interfere struck the other side as preposterous.
Who then could have anticipated the lovefest that broke out this week when the Coalition for the Blue Ridge Parkway unveiled the broad outlines for development that have come out of design workshops facilitated by Olin?
His skill at bringing together parkway representatives, county officials and private developers has resulted in plans that, if fully implemented, will soften the impact of man-made intrusions on the parkway's viewsheds, while creating housing that uses the scenic highway and its surrounding countryside as enhancements.
This happy outcome is due also to the genius of landscape architect Carlton Abbott, whose father was a principal designer on the parkway decades ago, and to the long-range vision of developers Len Boone and Steve Musselwhite, who agreed to allow developments they were planning to be used as models.
Boone's project was the spark that had ignited the controversy. Abbott concentrated on the piece of it south of the parkway, including a lovely meadow abutting the National Park Service boundary known as "the bowl." The plan as outlined leaves most of the bowl as green space, which Boone plans to donate to the Park Service along with two ridgetops that are in motorists' line of vision as they round a curve on the parkway.
A service road critical to Boone's development still is to run through the bowl, but this is to be a road with a difference. It is to be built to look like the parkway and to fit its curve and the lay of the land, with a split-rail fence, vegetation and a walking trail as buffers between the open space and roadway. Houses beyond it are to be designed with architectural controls to help them blend with the surrounding landscape, and built to face the parkway, with their prettiest parts visible through vegetation.
To accomplish this, builders will need variances from some state and county standards. County Administrator Elmer Hodge, an early and steadfast supporter of viewshed protection, has pledged the county's cooperation and its support on issues that have to be resolved in Richmond. Building a better subdivision, one that begins to meet a critical need for growth tailored to nature, will require government flexibility.
Boone, Musselwhite and developer Steve Strauss, who also participated in the workshops, will be taking a measure of risk in experimenting with layouts that break the cookie-cutter mold. A picture is starting to emerge, though, of homes made more, not less, attractive and more, not less, marketable by the architectural restrictions.
by CNB