ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE COUNTY SUPERVISORS are proposing a charter amendment that would make it permanently immune from annexation by Roanoke, Salem or Vinton.
With the ill-fated consolidation referendum of 1990 a distant memory and the word "cooperation" on the lips of Roanoke and Roanoke County officials, you may have thought that local territorial battles were history.
Think again.
The county Board of Supervisors is proposing a charter amendment that would make it permanently immune from annexation by Roanoke, Salem and the town of Vinton. And it's got officials of all three jurisdictions in a tizzy.
The proposal has been denounced by local state lawmakers as "undemocratic," "picking a fight," and "extreme." Vinton Mayor Charles Hill says he believes it's aimed at Vinton and is unfair.
Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, meanwhile, is joking about it. It sounds like Roanoke County wants to become a city, he said.
"There's already a James City County. Why couldn't there be a Roanoke County City?" Bowers observed acidly. "The city could then become Roanoke City County."
The Board of Supervisors will formally unveil the charter amendment at a meeting with state lawmakers this morning.
In essence, the amendment and a companion bill would likely make the county annexation-proof.
As worded, the proposal would require that any town or city seeking to annex any portion of Roanoke County instead annex the entire county. That annexation, meanwhile, would be subject to the approval of voters in the county.
By a wide margin, they defeated a referendum on consolidating governments with the city of Roanoke in 1990.
County Attorney Paul Mahoney said the board adopted the amendment during recent deliberations on its legislative package for 1996.
"It's fair to say there's some concern on the part of the county Board of Supervisors with respect to two disparate threats," he said.
The first "threat" is Vinton. Town officials have engaged in on-again, off-again talks with county officials for at least a year on annexing some county property.
Hill confirmed that the town is still collecting information that would be useful in a future annexation attempt, although Town Council hasn't voted one way or the other on the issue.
The second "threat," Mahoney said, revolves around activities of the Urban Partnership, a coalition of business, cities and some counties that has been working since 1994 on legislative proposals to foster regional cooperation.
Some of those proposals will be introduced in the 1996 General Assembly, although the partnership has dropped a controversial one that would allow cities the size of Roanoke to unilaterally merge with surrounding counties by becoming towns.
Although the county is immune from annexation by any city, the General Assembly could change that, Mahoney said.
"The Urban Partnership has gotten off track just a bit," Mahoney said. "What was once billed as something to foster regional cooperation has devolved into revisiting and ripping back open the old annexation scars and old annexation battles of 10 to 15 years ago."
By law, charter amendments have to be introduced on the opening day of the General Assembly session, in this case, Jan. 10. However, whether the county can get a patron for it before then is still an open question.
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said he won't sponsor it.
"It's picking a fight where none exists," Woodrum said. "Nobody's threatening Roanoke County right now with annexation."
Sen.-elect John Edwards said the amendment is "undemocratic." Under current law, a county neighborhood adjoining a city may still petition that city for annexation if it wishes. The amendment would remove that right.
Del. Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke, called the measure "extreme."
"It tells me we need to look at the status of cities so counties wouldn't have to be worried about things like this," he said.
The lawmaker who wrote the law on annexation moratoriums, House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, was out of town and could not be reached for comment. But Hill said Cranwell was unaware of it when he called him about it.
Bowers says he believes the legislation is going nowhere.
"I think it's a step that's going to be withdrawn, frankly," the mayor said. "I don't think it's going to get very far."
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