ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997 TAG: 9703140022
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
Glenvar residents worried about a proposed industrial park don't have to resign themselves to ugliness. Industries can be aesthetic as well as economic assets - if the neighbors insist.
GLENVAR HAS a lot to lose.
Like so many pretty places in this region that are metamorphosing from countryside to suburbia, the West Roanoke County community is in danger of witnessing the squandering of its treasured beauty.
But Glenvar also has an opportunity.
As the county Board of Supervisors renews its plan to develop an industrial park on the Glenn-Mary farm there, Glenvar residents are being asked to help shape it. Supervisors Chairman Bob Johnson has promised: "This is going to be an asset to that community, or quite simply, it won't happen."
Before anyone suffers whiplash in a knee-jerk rush to respond, "Fine, forget the idea," residents should consider carefully the opportunity before them.
The 463-acre Glenn-Mary farm is a prime target for development. When county officials first broached the idea of rezoning it for an industrial park, opponents said they hoped an upscale residential subdivision would be put there instead. But subdividing the farm would change the landscape far more than would an industrial park carefully designed to fit the terrain and to preserve its streams, ponds and woodlands.
To many people, industry means one thing: ugly. It doesn't have to be. The county has made it clear it would want clean, no-smokestack, environmentally friendly companies only. With the right type of industry, buildings can be designed to be compatible with their surroundings.
And with the right type of planning, the land's natural assets can be shared with the public. Walking trails could be established, and bridges built to carry foot traffic across streams. With local government, rather than a private developer, controlling the sale of parcels, county residents would have continuing commenting rights on what the park should look like as it took shape.
Botetourt County officials hope the Botetourt Center at Greenfield will be a model for this type of industrial development, which seeks a balance between localities' need to create a healthy tax base and job opportunities, and to preserve a pleasant quality of life.
Roanoke County wisely has set up a resident advisory council to help keep those goals in harmony as the Glenn-Mary project progresses. Neighbors who can see lovely possibilities have a chance to make the reality lovely, too.
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