ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060035
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
MORE THAN a year after the National Park Service proposed paying Roanoke for ownership or easement rights for 850 acres of city-owned land along the Appalachian Trail, the idea is still just an idea.
Why not make it a reality?
The Appalachian Trail ranks with motherhood and apple pie, in these parts, as a blessing unmarred by fault of any kind. But the matter is touchy, nevertheless, because the land in question, between Tinker Mountain and McAfee Knob in Botetourt and Roanoke counties, is in the watershed of the Carvins Cove Reservoir, the city's sole water supply.
Roanoke officials want to guard the city's ability to protect it.
The park service, for its part, wants to protect the trail and its surrounding land. The two goals are not at cross-purposes. On the contrary, they are mutually supportive.
The city readily concurs that the trail, well-maintained along this section and beyond by volunteers in the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club, makes an excellent neighbor. The city manager says Roanoke is willing to give the trail everything it wants, short of ownership.
No problem. The park service is willing to pay the city for a 1,000-foot-wide easement guaranteeing that the trail and the land surrounding it would stay in its natural state. An easement would leave ownership of the property with the city, and restrict government use of the land to the purpose for which the easement was granted - in this case, passive recreation such as hiking and bird-watching.
The city couldn't ask for a more restrictive use to protect its water supply. But it doesn't plan to allow development in the area anyway, city officials say. Why grant the easement and lose any control?
Well, because the only control that would be lost is the flexibility to allow what both sides say they don't want anyway. An easement would guarantee protection against, say, future roads or radio towers. And the city would be paid for that protection.
So what's holding up talks, not to mention an agreement?
When first approached about the idea, Mayor David Bowers proposed using the money, if there ever were to be any, to contribute to a greenways trust for developing walking and cycling paths in the city. Good idea. It's time Roanoke took him up on it.
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