ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 7, 1996 TAG: 9605070050
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
A Pennsylvania-based nonprofit environmental defense group will formally assist a Blacksburg law firm in its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration regarding the proposed "smart" road.
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund officially will be aiding in a lawsuit filed in November by the New River Valley Greens, which later was joined by the national Sierra Club and the New River Valley Environmental Coalition. The suit asked the U.S. District Court in Roanoke to order highway planners to conduct a more complete environmental review of the six-mile road, a link between Blacksburg and Interstate 81 that is being promoted as a proving ground for new transportation and safety technology.
The defense fund provides legal services to conservation-oriented community organizations and is involved in several cases that involve the federal highway agencies as defendants. It has informally aided local smart road opponents for some time.
Thomas Linzey, the fund's chief executive officer, said in a news release that the smart road "represents a black hole in which taxpayers' dollars are funneled to support private and university interests."
Linzey grew up in the New River Valley, and his father, Donald Linzey, is a member of both a citizen's committee that's been advising the Virginia Department of Transportation on the smart road's design and the Montgomery County Agricultural and Forestal District Advisory Committee. That county committee will play a role in reviewing VDOT's new application to condemn land for the road's right of way in a county conservation district.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB