ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: new river journal
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN
Today's Current has good news for those supporting economic growth in the New River Valley. Virginia Tech is in the middle of a $150 million construction boom for badly needed academic buildings and student athletic facilities. Another $445 million in campus construction is on the drawing board.
On the edge of campus, the highly successful Corporate Research Center continues its growth in Tech's research shadow, adding two more buildings for high-tech companies. The 1,000 jobs that have grown at the center since the '80s are expected to increase to 3,000 positions in the future.
This is planned, careful growth - adding the type of university research facilities and the high-paying jobs coveted by the region's economic leaders.
Yet even the best growth carries with it costs and decisions for the community.
Compare it to the mingled joy and pain of watching a teen-age son grow. You're proud of those new inches, but you know they also mean someone has to pay for new blue jeans, Nikes - and, eventually, another car.
It's tempting to ignore the issues and costs growth poses for our community - but such denial only ensures problems for our future.
If the Corporate Research Center alone meets its goal of 2,000 new jobs, where will those workers live?
Will they buy houses in Riner? Possibly. In Blacksburg's Toms Creek Basin? Probably.
Where will their children go to school? Where will they find the ballfields to play Little League? Where will the neighborhood shopping malls and fast-food franchises spring up to serve them?
Riner is Montgomery County's poster child for such growth issues as the community battles over whether to preserve or subdivide its famous farmland. Growth means someone must bear the costs of public sewer and water. It will guarantee greater traffic congestion on a two-lane paved cowpath and require expensive road construction.
A survey of Riner residents released just this week asked community residents how they felt about the importance of open space and natural areas in their neighborhood that is now one of the fastest growing subdivision sites in Montgomery County.
But it failed to ask the key question: "Are you willing to pay to preserve this land? We'd all like open space and mountain scenes. The tougher question is, are we willing to pay for it?
Who is talking about buying property in the Riner area while it is still affordable for baseball fields and parks to serve the burgeoning neighborhoods filled with young families? If the community wants to protect its farm landscape, is it willing to pay farmers for conservation and agricultural easements?
For a parent, it's easier to close your eyes and just pretend that teen-ager isn't growing. But if you ignore the toes poking through the shoes and the shrinking pants legs too long, all the costs will hit at one time. In a crisis, we always end up paying more and getting less.
Will our county begin the sort of long-term planning we need to prepare for growth?
Will we elect supervisors who will anticipate the future - who will plan for the significant rural and natural areas that can't be replaced once paved, the new schools, the parks, the other costs necessary to ensure that development enhances rather than trashes our community?
LENGTH: Medium: 66 linesby CNB