ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160005
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
A ROANOKE COUNTY advisory committee hopes to improve long-range planning by reaching the ``heartbeat'' of communities through designated residents.
Do you have a talent for tittle-tattle?
Do you always have the scoop on what's happening in your neighborhood?
Is your address book too small for the names of all your friends, neighbors and business contacts?
If so, someone is looking for you.
The 22 members of a citizen advisory committee - formed this year to get Roanoke County residents thinking and talking about the future - are recruiting.
The committee wants to get people involved in the design of a community plan, scheduled for completion by the end of 1997. The plan will affect every corner of the county by designating areas for new housing subdivisions and industry, identifying mountaintops that should be protected from development, and planning for new parks, libraries and utility lines.
The committee has decided to divide the county into 12 parts and recruit people for 12 neighborhood councils that will work on issues specific to their communities.
"We need to kind of listen to the heartbeat of the neighborhoods," said Don Witt, co-chairman of the advisory committee and a member of the Planning Commission.
Witt and other members of the committee are looking for people who can collect ideas and concerns from their neighbors and bring them to the council. At the same time, the council members are expected to keep their communities up to date on what the councils and county government officials are doing with that information.
Jon Hartley, assistant director of planning and zoning for the county, said it's true that a neighborhood gossip would be a model council member, but he prefers to use the term "key communicators."
"It's a person who knows what's going on and is respected for the quality of their knowledge," he said.
County officials concede their last comprehensive plan from 1985 has little support from residents, and it bears little resemblance to what Roanoke County has become in the past decade. They want more people involved this time around in hopes that the new plan will be a more credible guide for planning growth.
The neighborhood councils are the next step in a planning project that began last year, when county residents were invited to help design a "vision statement" for how they want the county to look in 2010. Although county officials boosted participation through a telephone survey, fewer than 200 people attended any of the public "visioning" meetings.
As the generalities of the vision statement are turned into specifics for the comprehensive plan, there is a new need for public involvement. Members of the advisory committee decided would be easier if there were groups meeting regularly in their own communities rather than having sporadic, countywide meetings at the county administration building.
"You've got to do it on their turf," advisory committee member Eldon Karr said.
In at least some communities, the councils could become a permanent means of monitoring growth. But recruits are being asked to commit to only six months.
``If you approach folks now and say, `How would you like to be on a permanent committee for the rest of your natural life?' I would think the response would be somewhat low,'' said Terry Harrington, the county's director of planning and zoning.
New council members will attend two seminars, one in mid-January and a second in March, advisory committee member Craig Sharp said.
"It's going to be an educational process for non-professionals, people that aren't planners," he said.
After that, the members will hold round-table discussions in their communities to identify the important issues there. In late spring or early summer, they will return to the advisory committee with proposals.
Gordon Saul, another member of the advisory committee, said it has been hard to get people interested in working on the comprehensive plan.
"People are just incredibly busy, and they don't have time to think about those things a whole lot," he said.
"There are a whole bunch of issues that really bug people, and I think that's what's going to bring them out," said Witt. "You've got to hit their hot button."
There are many hot buttons in Roanoke County, ranging from school needs to housing developments to rural preservation. But hot-button issues also can be divisive ones, and advisory committee members say they're prepared for disagreements between neighborhood councils.
"Every neighborhood is going to be a NIMBY [not in my back yard]," Witt said.
In other words, most councils might well say they'd like their communities to remain unchanged from 1997 all the way through 2010.
County planners say economic development, for example, is a countywide issue that can't be resolved by leaving the decision up to 12 neighborhood councils. All of them are likely to want new industries in someone else's community.
Ultimately, it will be up to the advisory committee, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to take the 12 community plans created by the neighborhood councils and fit them into a comprehensive plan for the county.
Martha Hooker, co-chairwoman of the advisory committee and a member of the Planning Commission, said that won't be easy, but it's the best way to get the most people behind the end result.
"We may end up with 30 different little subset visions," she said. "I just think we have to make it clear from the beginning we're all in this together."
If you are interested in getting involved, you can call the Roanoke County Planning Department at 772-2068.
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