Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507130001
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON AND GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The plans would include a 25,000-seat coliseum in Elliston, monorail trains for commuters and tourists, and freight passing through New River Valley Airport.
Local governments would open five 2,000-acre business parks, each dedicated to a sector of the economy, such as information technology, manufacturing or distribution.
As the council's leaders pulled back the curtain on 21 months of plotting about the future, they unveiled what they said is a strategy for a diverse and globally competitive economy built on technology and education.
The Roanoke and New River valleys and Alleghany Highlands would have one economy and share one vision - of linked computer networks, new bikeways and even combined water systems.
It's all in the first two chapters of the council's newly completed 250-page report, portions of which were made public for the first time since ``visioning'' discussions began in October 1993.
Recommendations related to the economy and physical infrastructure - from sewers to phone systems - highlighted a 40-minute news conference at the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center.
Ideas for bettering government, schools, health care, leadership, the environment and the region's living standards will come out July 17 and 24.
Tom Robertson, co-chairman of the council steering committee, urged residents and elected officials to ``keep the vision in front'' as decisions are made. But he also cautioned against expecting immediate progress on the package of recommendations, which involves 150 strategies in all.
``After today, the real work starts,'' he told the audience of 130.
Paul Torgersen, president of Virginia Tech and the council's other co-chairman, said the university will commit people and ideas to the effort but can't spare much cash. Asked how long it might take to implement the new goals, he said, ``I'd like to see us get something done in the next year or year and a half, and take it from there.''
Despite the complex and painstaking analysis that went into the report by more than 1,000 people, its release was a simple affair. Speakers stood under a single blue, white and green New Century Council banner. Refreshments were limited to coffee and ice water. No one in the audience asked a question.
The work that came out Monday and the strategies to be made public in the weeks ahead can succeed if the region's people remain steadfast as they chase the goals they've identified in common, say those involved in visioning work here and elsewhere.
``The key to success is you spend some time letting people know the vision exists and what it is,'' said Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh [N.C.] Chamber of Commerce. The vision has to be shared, he said in a telephone interview.
``The visioning process doesn't require anybody to do anything,'' Schmitt said. All it requires is that people establish a consensus on where they are going, and that local governments and groups incorporate the vision in what they do, he said.
``The vision is not a plan; it's a snapshot of where you want to be,'' Schmitt said.
Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr., the council's executive director, said in a prepared release that volunteers agreed on the need for a unifying identity - a name by which the region would be known to the world. The working name is the New Century Region. They agreed the region's communities should pool resources and avoid duplicating each other and speak with one voice in Richmond and Washington, D.C.
Already, though, there are indications that regional cooperation can be hard to sell.
Barry Evans, president of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, said Monday he opposes merging the alliance with two other industrial marketing organizations in the area - the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership and Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority - as the council recommends be done in 2003.
Though he supports the regions' working together, the alliance has an ``individual touch'' no larger organization can duplicate, he said.
``Each organization has a personal feel for their own marketing efforts,'' he said. ``And each have different things to offer.''
Under other strategies revealed Monday, this part of Western Virginia would become a major transportion hub, with strategically placed freight-handling equipment and good roads. Work would continue on the proposed ``smart'' road for testing traffic management systems of the future.
It would be easier to get around - and get in touch. Local telephone calls - even from Covington to Rocky Mount or Roanoke to Dublin - would be toll-free.
New organizations would form to give entrepreneurs a hand, teach students capitalism and train workers in needed skills. Business owners could use computers to inquire about loans and advice, while job-seekers could use the same network to find high-paying positions.
Toward a theme of concentrating on the region's strengths, the council agreed that colleges and universities would be the primary economic engines, because most new jobs would be spawned by research at institutions of higher education.
|n n| Where the region is headed, other communities have already gone with measurable success.
Communities such as Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., have already developed their visions and seen them to reality.
Atlanta, home of next summer's Olympics, went through its visioning process in the mid 1980s. It set as one of its goals serving as the host of a world-class sporting event, Henry Luke, a Jacksonville, Fla., business consultant, said in a telephone interview.
Luke helped make visioning popular as an economic development tool and worked with the New Century Council when it began its work two years ago.
The city of Charlotte, where the NFL's Carolina Panthers will play their first game next year, set as one of its goals becoming the home of a professional football team.
When Richmond went through a visioning process about five years ago - it has since started to renew its vision - the city decided to pursue a regional water-supply agreement and an engineering school as needs. Both were achieved and were cited by Motorola in its decision to locate a plant in nearby Goochland County, said Jim Hassinger, executive director of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission.
Augusta, Ga., saw a 30-year effort to merge the city with surrounding Richmond County accomplished after the consolidation was discussed, debated and included in the city's vision statement, said Al Hodge, president of the Augusta Chamber of Commerce.
Luke said the foundations for success exist in Western Virginia, too.
Although his involvement with the New Century Council ended when he finished editing the council's vision statement in February 1994, he said he remains convinced that the region has a higher percentage of people involved in higher education than the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area and a natural beauty which, when combined, should attract business from all over the world.
Among those who will be pushing a regionalism concept to make that dream a reality is Hiawatha Nicely of Dublin, co-chairman of an economy committee and a vice president of Magnox Inc. in Pulaski. Nicely said he is convinced that what's good for one community in the region is good for the others.
Concurring was William Bales of Roanoke, a Norfolk Southern vice president, who was co-chairman of the economy team with Nicely. ``With the enthusiasm that was evident in the report and meetings and dialogue, I just don't think it's going to die,'' he said.
``We can all benefit by joint efforts in bringing development to the area,'' he said.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***