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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995                   TAG: 9506120004
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: The Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTROSS                                 LENGTH: Medium

STATE PANEL CHARGED WITH STUDYING GROWTH DISBANDS

A state panel that frequently clashed with real estate interests and local governments has disbanded without reaching its goal of proposing a far-reaching plan to manage Virginia's rapid growth.

The Virginia Commission on Population Growth and Development, given a five-year life by the General Assembly, met for the last time last week in Westmoreland County. The panel officially ceases to exist June 30.

The commission, approved by the General Assembly in 1989, sought ways to limit urban sprawl and hoped to foster statewide and regional planning for growth. Real estate interests and local governments that feared infringements on property rights fought with the group, whose proposals went nowhere in the legislature.

``It turned out to be a lot tougher struggle than many of us realized going into this,'' said commission member Joseph H. Maroon, Virginia director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The panel received solid support at first from then-Gov. Gerald Baliles. That support waned under his successor, Gov. Douglas Wilder, and never surfaced under Gov. George Allen, said Katherine L. Imhoff, the group's executive director.

Issues such as the Lake Gaston pipeline, the proposed Disney's America theme park in Northern Virginia and the unmanaged development of rural areas showed the need for planning beyond the local level, members said.

``We've been dealing with a lot of difficult issues that are not easily resolved, but issues that are not going away,'' said the commission's chairman, Del. W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., D-Westmoreland County.

During 1980-90, Virginia's population grew by 842,400, from 5.3 million residents to 6.2 million - the biggest 10-year increase ever.

The growth commission's mission was blunted, observers said, by the recession of the '90s, which led some people to call for more, not less, development.

But despite a perception of slowed growth in recent years, Virginia's population continued its rapid rise in the '90s, experts say.

The commission is made up of legislators, business people, academics and environmentalists. It had a staff of two and a budget of roughly $150,000 a year.

The commission proposed legislation designed to help state agencies plot their futures, but the 1994 General Assembly didn't approve it. The panel also suggested the state develop a computerized system that could quickly provide geographic information such as the locations of highways and rivers. The proposal is languishing in a legislative study committee.

by CNB