
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 31, 1991                   TAG: 9104010183
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MANY CONCERNS ON CRYSTAL CREEK

THE ROANOKE County Board of Supervisors seems incapable of learning from past errors. Previous boards and supervisors supported development on Peters Creek, a serious and expensive mistake. Now our board wants to repeat that mistake with the Crystal Creek highway project on Back Creek.

The following facts and concerns have been presented to the Board of Supervisors and the Virginia Department of Transportation:

Current plans place the reworked road on the 100-year flood plain, as defined on Army Corps of Engineer maps. County law prohibits building roads there.

The plan would cut down a large number of mature trees now shading the creek. The increase in photosynthesis in the creek would choke aquatic life and generate a green algae scum that would spread to the Roanoke River and beyond. Areas as far away as Smith Mountain Lake could be affected.

Back Creek already has significant violations of water-quality criteria for chloride, phosphorus, copper, cadmium, lead, mercury and zinc. This project would add to the problem significantly.

The plan narrows the gorge for the creek in several places. Residents of the area who went through the flood of 1985 do not approve of any project that would impede the free flow of Back Creek during storms.

VDOT has sold this project with safety as an issue.

Current plans would route 45-mph traffic, including heavy trucks, past Starkey Park and dump it on Merriman at the foot of Penn Forest Elementary School. Where's the PTA?

Plans model construction after Buck Mountain Road. Accident statistics show that 78 percent of all accidents on Buck Mountain Road (but only 26 percent of accidents on Crystal Creek) resulted in personal injury. There were no reported accidents on Crystal Creek Drive in 1990.

These facts were presented to VDOT and to the Board of Supervisors. So far, there has been no response.

More than 160 citizens attended a public hearing sponsored by VDOT. Twenty-three citizens spoke at the hearing. Three favored the project.

A petition with more than 1,100 names of citizens opposing the project was forwarded to VDOT and the board. More than 300 written public comments opposing the project were presented to VDOT and the board.

The Smith Mountain Lake Association and the Bridlewood Homeowners' Association have both gone on record opposing this project. STAN JANDA ROANOKE

by CNB