Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 18, 1995 TAG: 9507180071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG NOTE: ABOVE LENGTH: Long
Want to buy or build in a new subdivision? Expect to find the yards smaller, the houses closer together and much of the development's property set aside as "green space."
Looking to put up a mountaintop home? Some of those ridgetops might be off-limits in the future, as the region seeks to preserve its best views.
How to keep property owners from cashing in on commercial development? Offer them tax breaks to not develop their land.
The second part of the New Century Council's three-part report on the region's future sketches a vision that hits citizens where they live - or where they might like to.
While last week's report emphasized big-ticket economic development items such as new roads and setting aside 10,000 acres for business parks, this week's installment looks at ways to preserve the region's scenery - by keeping much of the land out of development's path.
"I don't think it's a contradiction at all," New Century Council Co-chairman Tom Robertson said Monday after the report was presented to a crowd of almost 100 people gathered in a Virginia Tech dairy science classroom.
"It's obvious to me we're going to grow," said the president of the Roanoke-based Carilion Health System. The key, Robertson stressed, is whether that growth is orderly or haphazard.
By identifying scenic views worth preserving, and clustering business development rather than letting it sprawl across the countryside, "we can have orderly growth," he said.
Just what that growth will look like is a theme that has run throughout the deliberations the 1,000-member group of business, civic and government leaders has held during the past 20 months in attempting to chart a "vision" for the Roanoke Valley, New River Valley and Alleghany Highlands.
This week's report was a grab-bag of proposals, including "health and safety," "quality of life" and "leadership."
But two themes quickly emerged - developing a regional
identity and preserving that identity's rural character.
The emphasis on regionalism was no surprise. The council's premise from the beginning has been that the region stretching from Alleghany County to Giles County shares a common economic base - and a common future.
Monday's report urges that the New Century Council become a permanent organization to act as the region's advocate.
For the most part, the council is looking to others - local governments and community groups, for instance - to carry out its specific recommendations.
"But we need someone to ask the question 'How are you coming along with that? Are you meeting your deadline?,'" said New Century Council Director Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr.
The council also envisions itself becoming the region's chief lobbyist in Richmond and Washington, even convening an annual "summit" with state legislators before the start of each General Assembly session to make sure they're aware of the region's priorities.
This, the report said, would help rally legislators behind projects that otherwise might attract only local support. "One year we may all need to support a Radford or Pulaski project, while in the next an Alleghany County or Rocky Mount project," the report said.
One New Century participant, Virginia Tech political analyst Bob Denton, found the council's future role to be the key to whether any of its recommendations become reality. "There's going to be a need for strong leadership to continue this," he said.
It's "ridiculous," he said, to expect that the New Century Council can simply pass on its recommendations to existing groups and expect them to be carried out. "Many of these things are directly tied to money," he noted, and local governments are often notoriously reluctant to spend money on projects outside their borders.
But that's not how the council thinks things ought to work. "We are interested in the region's orderly growth, not so much the individual municipalities," said Bob Archer, general manager of the Salem-based Blue Ridge Beverage and co-chairman of the council's quality of life group.
That outlook drew a warning from one spectator at Monday's presentation - state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville. "It's not just the elected officials" who sometimes don't want to cooperate, he said. "Generally, they're expressing the views of their constituents. What you're going to be confronted with is a massive educational program."
Marye urged the New Century Council visionaries "to go up in some of the hollows and 'round about like I do" to talk to citizens about the benefits of thinking regionally.
Robertson agreed that a tough sales job lies ahead. However, he said that's why many of the council's recommendations dealt with ways to educate citizens that they're part of a larger region.
Jim Rakes, president of the National Bank of Blacksburg and co-chairman of the council's leadership section, said the council's No.1 priority should be forging a regional identity.
"We cannot overstate how much this regional identity is needed," Rakes said. "We must act regionally."
To help develop that regional identity, the council also recommends that the region come up with a name by which to advertise itself.
However, there are dangers to being too well-known, and so much of Monday's presentation also dealt with land-use issues.
"One of the real fears we have is in the next 10-15 years, people in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Washington are going to get tired of living two feet from their neighbors and they'll discover the New Century region and they'll inundate us," Fitzpatrick said.
That's why the council is recommending the region take steps now to restrict development on ridgetops and otherwise limit the type and location of growth.
Fitzpatrick acknowledged there was a tension between the council's two goals, to promote economic development and preserve rural scenery.
He said citizens appeared to be more interested in making sure there are enough well-paying jobs to keep their children from moving away than they are in preserving every square foot of countryside.
"What we have here is a compromise," he said. "We have something special [in the region's scenery]. But we're not going to compromise our kids. There's a willingness to have some change in quality of life to have some change" in the types of jobs available.
by CNB