ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
A few weeks ago, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted to allow the condemnation of 140 acres of land in Agricultural and Forestal District 7 for the construction of the Ellett Valley highway that would accommodate Virginia Tech's "smart road" test bed. As two of hundreds of area residents who opposed to the project, we offer this summation of the winners and losers.
Losers
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors
The only reason the board had to make a decision on the road was the proposed condemnation of AFD lands. The Virginia law that protects agricultural and forestal lands provides clear guidelines for such condemnation, and none of its requirements was met by the project.
Therefore, the board's decision is illegal. The four supervisors who voted "yes" sacrificed legality at the altar of political expediency and demonstrated that they serve the political/economic power structure rather than the citizens who elected them, making them the biggest losers of all.
Under the Virginia code, citizens lack the right to challenge board decisions in court; however, the public will act is its own judge. The damage, in terms of the erosion of public trust, is irreparable.
Virginia Tech
Assuming itself to be the big winner, Tech is, in fact, a loser because it has indeed become "the 800-pound gorilla." After Tech's strong-arm maneuvering and disingenuous offers for trading remote, already protected acreage for the heart of AFD-7, the perception of Tech as a self-serving bully is crystal clear. The public are unwitting investors in an uncertain venture from which we have only a vague possibility of reaping only an indirect gain. Nobody is opposed to Tech's legitimate need for a test bed and the pursuit of research funding; objections focus primarily on the particular corridor chosen and the fact that unwitting taxpayers are being roped into paying for it. Tech will never again receive, nor does it deserve, the local support it once enjoyed.
The Virginia Department of Transportation
Once believed by many of us to be an engineering agency, VDOT solidified its position as a political entity by presenting entirely one-sided, self-serving evaluations of this project. In their scrambling to advance the project over widespread public opposition (including that from their own hand-picked Citizens Advisory Board), local and state VDOT spokesmen shamelessly exaggerated any projected need for, and benefits of, the Ellett Valley route, and grossly understated the social and environmental impacts. In doing so, the agency earned the distrust and scorn of the citizens of Montgomery County.
AFD landowners
Obviously, the landowners of AFD-7 received a cruel blow from the board's decision. They trusted that, under their legal agreement with the county, their agricultural and forested lands would be protected from the forces of development. Worse, though, is that the board's decision sets a precedent by rendering Virginia's AFD statute gutless.
Virginia taxpayers
If it is ever completed, the Ellett Valley highway will be fabulously expensive, conservatively estimated at $20 million per mile, and similarly expensive to maintain. With thousands of miles of Virginia roads in disrepair, this dumps one more burden on future taxpayers.
The media
By pandering to the political/economic power structure in their coverage of this issue, the local media in general, and The Roanoke Times in particular, undermined their own credibility. In a demonstration of advocacy journalism at its most craven, our media abandoned the standards of unbiased investigative reporting in favor of simply parroting the unfounded claims of the Ellett Valley highway proponents, while ignoring the substantive issues at the heart of the opposition.
A free press is one of the treasures of democracy. Our local media compromised themselves and the public.
"Natural" Virginia
More than a million acres of our nation's forests and farms are sacrificed to development each year. VDOT says this major highway will have no impact whatsoever on the environment in Ellett Valley. You decide.
Winners
The profiteers
Because traffic projections fail to justify the project and test beds can be built elsewhere, it is clear that the Ellett Valley highway has nothing to do with transportation or research, or even economic development in the real sense. It has everything to do with financial gain for a few and political cronyism. Common sense tells us that Tech insiders and the owners of local engineering companies, construction companies, quarries, real estate agencies, and development companies would feed at this public trough. As usual, many of our area's richest and most powerful stand to reap the benefits. Supposedly, this windfall would trickle down to ordinary citizens. But we all know the drill: somehow the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It was not by coincidence that the majority of those speaking in favor of the road at the board's hearings have a financial interest in the project.
Three supervisors
Three Montgomery County supervisors conscientiously voted "no" in accordance with the law, thereby earning the respect and gratitude of the people they were elected to serve.
The loyal opposition
Opponents may have lost this battle, but the war isn't over. United in diversity by a common cause, we know that, when standing on principle and fighting for justice, we are winners.
Michael Abraham, a Blacksburg resident, is general manager of a manufacturing business in Christiansburg.
Shireen Parsons is a consultant to nonprofit environmental groups, and a resident of Riner.
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