ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607020022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
GREENWAYS are moving forward in the Roanoke Valley. But, with leadership, the pace could be picked up.
Right now, the notion of trails and bikeways crisscrossing the valley, connecting neighborhoods and parks, making use of the Roanoke River corridor, and eventually linking Smith Mountain Lake, Explore Park and the Roanoke and New River Valleys, seems a distant dream.
Certainly, initial steps are worth celebrating. They mark enormous progress from where the valley was just a couple of years ago.
A greenways steering committee, representing each of the valley's municipalities, has produced a fine blueprint for a trail system. The group also has secured funding for the first phase of a pedestrian and biking trail, linking Roanoke's City Market area with the top of Mill Mountain. Assuming it proves popular, this project should give others impetus.
And yet, even as enthusiasm builds around the valley, local government leaders seem still reluctant to embrace greenways with the commitment, foresight and investment - in short, leadership - needed to convert a 50-year dream into a 10-year plan.
The steering committee, for example, has asked municipalities to pitch in to hire a regional coordinator to harness volunteer efforts, raise funds and manage trail development. Roanoke County and city are contributing their share of the cost, based proportionately on population. But Salem has agreed only to the $3,600 it gave last year. That's half what the other localities, per resident, are contributing.
That said, what others are or aren't doing should matter less to Roanoke city officials than what the city is or isn't doing. While some staff are committed to trail development, the city manager's office has yet to seize the initiative. The city has invited greenway committee members to work with engineers making plans for new sewer lines along the Roanoke River. But it hasn't committed to incorporate trails into the project.
Meantime, Roanoke County has moved ahead with planning for a Garst Mill greenway, but progress on the Hanging Rock Battlefield trail, a joint Salem/Roanoke County project, appears to have slowed. And other good ideas, from making the riverside Wiley Drive more user-friendly to developing a trail along Wolf Creek in Vinton, have yet to go anywhere.
Regional trail development isn't for the impatient. It is incremental. It takes years. But it also takes pushing. Local governments are reacting to requests, but they aren't acting as if they recognize greenways' potential benefits - especially for a region that already boasts mountain scenery and access to the Appalachian Trail and Blue Ridge Parkway.
To eco-friendly communities that preserve, connect and take advantage of their assets will go the visitors, jobs and growth of the next century. Greenways get people outdoors and interacting, and help secure a middle-class tax base. For flood abatement, they work better than concrete channelization. And, because trails don't end at political borders, they foster regional cooperation.
Regions making headway on their greenway potential aren't doing so with tiny donations and grudging concessions. The Roanoke Valley has made good progress getting started on trails. Now let's move into higher gear.
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