Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 30, 1995 TAG: 9505300025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS AND BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE LENGTH: Long
Pam Lane feels it. The vacant lot across Oldtown Road from her spruced-up 90-year-old house soon will be occupied by a doublewide manufactured home. She's concerned the new dwelling will lower her property's value.
Ray Epperly feels it, too. He's developing the lot - one of the the few spaces available in the community - for a client of his business, Heritage Homes. He says he's being "crucified" for providing affordable housing for working-class families.
People like living in Shawsville. It's quaint, cozy and convenient to the Roanoke and New River valleys. Freight trains rumbling by are the only obvious interruption to the peace.
These days, however, there's an undercurrent of tension hereabouts. Oldtown Road is the dividing line between more than Lane's house and Epperly's lot: It's a face-off between two visions of the community's future.
Lane is among those who think Shawsville is drifting, having lost contact with its past and future. They say historic resources aren't being protected and nobody's planning or controlling growth. Mobile homes plopped down next door to older residences exemplify what Lane calls the community's "hodgepodge" development.
Like Lane, Epperly is a longtime Shawsville resident, and he agrees the village is changing. The grocery store and the hardware-farm implement dealer have closed, and the community is less self-sufficient than it used to be. Shawsville needs more families, and people want to move in - but they can't find a place to build, he says.
Some of the actors in this civic drama were on display last week at the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors' meeting. Lane came as part of a citizens group opposing Epperly's proposal to put six doublewide homes on 2.3 acres in Shawsville.
Foes of the doublewides mentioned lower property values and school overcrowding as negatives. Karen Pappas, who lives with her family in Shawsville's oldest structure, a 275-year-old former tavern on Oldtown Road, talked about "the larger issue" of uncontrolled development. She looked into the future and saw Shawsville "covered with asphalt, trailer parks and car washes."
When his turn came, Epperly said he was being vilified. He defended his residences as attractive, substantial and fully in compliance with county regulations.
In the end, the rezoning request - like a proposal to add 25 more units to the 160-unit Smith Village Mobile Home Park just north of Shawsville, also opposed by the citizens for many of the same reasons - was tabled by the county Planning Commission. Both will be reconsidered next month.
However, before the meeting ended, Supervisors' Chairman Larry Linkous told county planners to help the Shawsville residents launch a dialogue on how the community should grow.
"In the past, for us, Shawsville has always been the most apathetic part of the county. And now suddenly there's some interest," said Joe Powers, county planning director.
People on both sides of the question agree that the community has been passive. "We've lacked community leaders of late," Epperly said. And they also agree that there needs to be communication and planning.
"I'm interested in seeing some long-term goals for development. I think anybody would be," said George Smith, a Shawsville native who runs Meadowbrook Nursing Home, the village's largest employer.
One step the county Board of Supervisors could take, if residents ask for it, is to rezone land out of traditional agricultural zoning and into more restrictive residential categories. That would limit the types and density of homes that could be built. The bulk of the village has been in the less-restrictive agricultural category since the county instituted zoning in 1969. Another step, one already under consideration, is tightening density rules in agricultural zones.
Development will be spurred - sooner or later - by the recently completed extension of a county water line through Shawsville along U.S. 460 and a planned expansion of the sewage plant there, so it's a critical time for the community to think about its future. Development also may bring demand for a public library branch, a fire station and other services not available today.
The Shawsville Ruritan Club already is working with the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library Board to make the Shawsville-Elliston area its next project after the Blacksburg branch is renovated.
Yet, the major limitations on growth in and around Shawsville are dictated by geography. There are steep slopes on both sides of the community. Much of the open, flat land lies within the South Fork of the Roanoke River's flood plain. Additionally, the community is surrounded by potentially developable land that is held in large parcels and used for agriculture.
"There's not a lot of available land to develop. That's the problem. We're kind of landlocked here," said William Armour, operator of a dental clinic in Shawsville.
Census data measured within the community's 24162 postal code show that Shawsville's population declined 11 percent from 1980 to 1991. The census also says residents of eastern Montgomery County, including Shawsville, are more likely to be blue collar workers who drive farther to work than the average county resident.
Census data also show that 42 percent of the residences in eastern Montgomery County are trailers, almost three times the county average.
"I'd say 90 percent of the people work in Salem or Roanoke. They moved out here so they could put a trailer on their property," said B.K. Cruey, Shawsville's lone resident lawyer. Even so, Cruey says, "It's almost impossible to find a place to build."
The number of students at Shawsville's elementary, middle and high schools has been stable over recent years, according to the county school system's figures. Nonetheless, the schools are at or beyond their capacity. Many residents worry that rapid residential growth will overwhelm school buildings, particularly the Depression-era high school, and increase pupil-teacher ratios. A new high school for Shawsville is one of the county School Board's top priorities as part of a major countywide building program under consideration.
All agree the balance between growth and stagnation is delicate and not easily achieved. "I wish I knew the answer, but I don't," said Joe Stewart of Elliston, the farmer and Montgomery County supervisor who has represented Shawsville since 1980.
"I hate like the devil for a man to own a piece of land that he can't do what he wants to do with it," he said. "I don't think me or anybody should put a trailer park in front of a million-dollar home. But some people have got to have affordable homes."
"It's a real, real touchy situation down here," Armour said. "There's been more than one argument."
by CNB