ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230037
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
HERE'S THE deal: The city of Roanoke needs to protect the Carvins Cove watershed. The city also has an interest in seeing the Appalachian Trail protected, and in finding money to help jump-start greenways development.
Now comes the National Park Service, offering $300,000 or $400,000 to buy an easement or land along the Appalachian Trail near Carvins Cove.
Is this a great deal or what?
Not only would the sale leave Roanoke's water supply untouched - unless you see a threat in the park service's control or ownership of a trail mostly along the top of the watershed, now freely used by hikers.
The deal would also help preserve an urban stretch of the Appalachian Trail - the nation's most famous greenway, and an important attraction for the Roanoke Valley - while tapping a felicitous funding source to help the city get its own greenways going.
City officials not so entranced with the idea point out that their first responsibility is to protect Roanokers' drinking water. City ownership and control of the land around Carvins Cove doubtless help keep down water-treatment requirements and regulatory oversight.
In all likelihood, though, the National Park Service would apply restrictions as tight as the city's on the land between Tinker Mountain and McAfee Knob. As it is, a power line and roads cross the watershed. The city recently proposed a firing range for the area. If the loss of future development options and rights is a problem for city officials, that's hard to square with the claimed primacy of protecting the watershed.
Reluctant officials also note that the land is owned by Roanoke's water utility, paid for with user fees. Proceeds from property sales traditionally would return to the water fund. Surely, though, City Council could, if it wanted, direct a transfer of money from the water fund to a greenway fund.
Well, say the city officials, there's no necessary connection between negotiations with the park service and funding for city greenways. If the city decides to sell a land corridor or easement, the best use of the proceeds would remain a separate issue.
They have a point. Indeed, if the city decided to develop linear parks and trails, it could include funding for them in a bond issue next year - regardless of the decision on Carvins Cove.
Yet surely there is a natural, if not a necessary, fit between the land deal and greenways development, both of which may require broad appreciation of easements' benefits.
The Roanoke Valley would thank its lucky star if, one day, it could point to both the Appalachian Trail and a network of greenways among its quality-of-life assets. As the Sierra Club's Bill Tanger suggests, "It's a wonderful idea to take a windfall from trail operations and to put it in additional trails."
For that matter, who's to say the city couldn't use proceeds from an Appalachian Trail transaction along with funding from a bond issue next year - to get started with greenways along the Roanoke River as well as from downtown to Mill Mountain?
City Council's water resources committee takes up the issue today. The full council should encourage city administrators at least to respond, with good-faith negotiations, to the park service's offer.
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