ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
If Virginia truly wants to build the "smart" highway through Montgomery County, it's going to have to do its homework.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Monday set up a detailed application process that the Virginia Department of Transportation will have to follow before it can seek to condemn more than 140 acres of private land for the road's right of way that passes through a county conservation district.
The application will involve a written report addressing more than 90 questions and may include maps, photos, videos and other information.
It is the outgrowth of the board's initial decision last month that would have blocked VDOT from condemning the land and therefore building the road. The board rescinded that vote a week later.
The questions cover much of the ground that VDOT and other agencies investigated while compiling the federally required environmental impact statement for the project. That statement was approved in May 1993 and was challenged last month in a lawsuit filed by road opponents.
But the county's application will amount to a repackaging of the environmental-impact information, along with more detailed data on the economic predictions associations with the 5.8-mile link between Blacksburg and Interstate 81.
Virginia Tech President Paul Torgersen last month likened the smart highway in potential economic impact to Motorola Corp.'s plan to build a new plant and bring thousands of jobs to the Richmond area.
Opponents say those forecasts are rosy at best and are being used to win political support for a project that will aid only Tech and Roanoke.
"I can't say that these questions would solicit totally new information," said County Attorney Roy Thorpe, part of a four-member team of county employees who put together the questionnaire. "We do think it asks for information that was not fully addressed last time."
The Montgomery board approved the format by a 5-1 vote. Supervisor Joe Stewart was the lone "no." Supervisor Joe Gorman was absent.
Monday's resolution was an attempt to come up with a detailed, written application process to deal with an obscure, never or rarely tested portion of state law.
Under the law, when a public agency wants to condemn land in a county-designated conservation area, it must notify the county and submit any information requested.
VDOT first filed its intent to condemn the land in September. After the supervisors rescinded their opposition last month, VDOT withdrew that notice and will now be able to pick up the new application and prepare it before applying again and kicking off a 30-day review period, to be followed by a 60-day extension if the board desires.
With the first condemnation notice, the county staff and supervisors were left, in effect, winging it because the situation had never arisen in Montgomery County or any of several other counties checked around Virginia.
Throughout the fall, Gorman, for one, complained of a lack of specific information on the project and how it would affect Agricultural and Forestal District 7 between Wilson and Den creeks northeast of the Ellett Valley.
The 12-page application form adopted Monday would require VDOT to submit written responses to specific questions divided into two broad categories: first, the effect the smart road would have on the preservation and enhancement of the agricultural and forestal district; and second, the necessity of the smart road to provide a public service in the most economical and practical manner.
The first category includes more than 40 questions in eight areas from the types of wildlife habitat that would be affected to possible alternatives to the smart road outside the district. The second category focuses on the economics of the smart road in more than 50 questions over 11 sections.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB