ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., criticized a House bill that would limit the size of the Richmond National Battlefield Park and the Shenandoah National Park.
In written testimony to a Senate subcommittee studying the bill, Robb said freezing the parks' boundaries to lands now owned by the federal government is a quick fix when a ``reasoned process'' is needed to draw appropriate boundaries.
Robb's backing is needed if the bill, drafted by Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Richmond, is to proceed out of the subcommittee. The House voted 377-31 for the bill in September.
The Senate subcommittee on parks, historic preservation and recreation also heard from three state Republican lawmakers backing the bill - Bliley, Sen. John Warner and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County.
``Park expansions should be determined not by unelected bureaucrats, but by elected officials who are responsible to their constituents,'' Bliley told the panel.
The National Park Service and the National Parks and Conservation Association, a nonprofit conservation group, opposed the boundary provisions.
Another part of the bill would create a Civil War battlefield national park in the Shenandoah Valley. Some of the land parcels already are owned by preservation groups or local governments.
Robb favors creation of a battlefield park in the Shenandoah Valley and said the way to get it passed is to approve a comprehensive Virginia parks bill in the Senate.
Robb said he was working to find a compromise with Warner's office, the National Park Service and the National Parks and Conservation Association.
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