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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995                   TAG: 9509290057
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BALANCING VALUES ALONG U.S. 221

FIRST THE residents and now Roanoke County's supervisors have spoken: They don't want a new, four-lane highway cut through Back Creek, damaging a 250-year-old working farm and further eroding what remains of the rural character of the surrounding land.

They do, however, want the dangerous S-curves on U.S. 221 straightened and the narrow road to Bent Mountain widened to more safely accommodate the 10,000 commuters a day now pouring onto the highway from subdivisions never dreamed of when Bent Mountain Road was designed in 1930.

Fix the problems, but in the original roadbed, county residents and supervisors ask the Virginia Department of Transportation. And if VDOT can accommodate them, it should.

It will not be simple, or cheap. Back Creek runs along one side of the highway, which means cutting into the steep hillsides on the other to widen the road in its existing bed. That could well mean mudslides. And property owners will be affected, including the Poage family, whose dairy operation already is cut in two by the highway.

VDOT engineers say it would be less disruptive, not to mention cheaper, to take the road across to the south side of the creek for the 2.3-mile leg scheduled for improvement. That is the route they prefer.

But a new four-lane highway there could have greater impact on the Poage farm, which has been around since 1748. The community is saying the farm is important to it; it wants the family to be able to continue operations.

A new four-lane highway south of the creek also would be visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway, whereas the current roadbed runs through a valley, hidden from view from the parkway. The parkway is an asset valuable to the entire region.

A new four-lane highway, residents fear, would cut through a closely-knit community. And, they anticipate, it would likely open the area to even more subdivisions, threatening to transform Back Creek into just another largely indistinguishable piece of suburbia.

That large numbers of residents turned out for public hearings, and that so many wanted either to improve the highway in its existing roadbed or to do nothing to it at all, signals a welcome balancing of public priorities.

Rather than the most convenient choice possible, residents are demanding the least intrusive choice possible that will bring the road to an acceptable standard of safety.

VDOT will decide the route, though, and the preference of the public and the supervisors will be only one factor in the outcome. VDOT must consider engineering problems and costs. Yet the community's interest in preserving its quality of life, protecting its history and maintaining the beauty of the countryside also should weigh heavily in the decision. The loss of any of these would be costly, too.

Civic activism may yet minimize the impact on the Poage farm. Civic activism has helped to build and may help to preserve the sense of community that Back Creek residents enjoy. And civic activism may save the parkway from yet another scar on its much-admired viewshed.

It's questionable, though, whether winning this battle would greatly slow the suburbanization of the area. After all, the road was lousy when the current residents moved in.

by CNB