Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070038
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bedford, in short, would seem a likely candidate for voluntary reversion to town status. And so, in a way, it is - but with a twist that sabotages the value of the effort.
Under the plan brought forth by citizen-circulated petitions, Bedford city and Bedford County would consolidate governments. What's now the city would remain an identifiable though no longer independent entity - similar, that is, to a town under Virginia's structure of local government.
The city would not, however, become a town; rather, it would become a "shire." That's because the county would not remain a county; rather, it - all 760-plus square miles of it - would become a city.
At least by legal definition. In any other sense, the notion that a locality so big with a population density so low (about 70 people per square mile) would be deemed a city is absurd on its face.
The madness, though, is not without a certain method.
Where Bedford and Bedford County differ from South Boston and Halifax County is the two Bedfords' relative proximity to other cities. Adjacent at one end of the county is Lynchburg. The other end is adjacent to the Roanoke Valley, though not to the city of Roanoke.
If what's now Bedford County were to become a city, even if only as a legal fiction, suburban subdivisions on the county's fringes presumably would be made invulnerable to Lynchburg-initiated annexation - even if the current state moratorium on city-initiated annexations were to end, or if Lynchburg were to regain annexation rights by reverting to town status.
The issue in Bedford, then, is more than a matter of nomenclature. Under the guise of progress, the plan actually would be a step backward in the effort to bring Virginia local government into better alignment with the economic and social reality that suburbs and core cities are interdependent.
by CNB