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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 22, 1993                   TAG: 9307220703
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID W. SLIGH
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

A COUNTY'S END-RUN AROUND THE RULES

WHEN LAWS are made but not enforced, they are like lies told to the public by elected representatives. They induce a false sense of security that leaves citizens unprepared for assaults on their rights and property. The Roanoke County administration and the county's planning commission have shown themselves unwilling to apply local ordinances as written and, consequently, residents of the Cotton Hill Road and Bradshaw areas are threatened.

Roanoke County citizens must tell the Board of Supervisors that we demand the protections we were promised when they enacted local ordinances. You may see these issues that are not your concern, but we must all be concerned by a government that won't live up to its legal obligations. Let no one convince you that the fair and diligent application of local laws is not your business. If we fail to support the rule of law at every opportunity, then that rule no longer exists. Don't sit by and watch that happen here.

The county adopted a Comprehensive Development Plan in 1985, to serve as a blueprint for development and preservation of resources in the county through the year 2003. Under Virginia law, the plan must be enforced once it is adopted. State law, of course, allows for changes to the plan if it is outdated or incorrect, but there is no legal provision for ignoring the plan. However, the county's planning department and planning commission are suggesting that supervisors do just that - ignore the comprehensive plan - because they are under pressure from developers and find it uncomfortable and inconvenient to stand up for the laws that exist.

The Roanoke Times & World-News printed articles on July 5 about the attempt to rezone two large parcels of land in the Cotton Hill Road area, along the Blue Ridge Parkway in southern Roanoke County ("Confusion surrounds parkway subdivision" and "Neighborhood to fight proposed zoning changes"). County officials said in one article that the plan is outdated and does not reflect growth that has occurred during the past decade. Further, they said protective rural designation given to this area in the comprehensive plan is incompatible with a scheme to provide county water and sewer to the area.

If growth has occurred in south Roanoke County since 1985, growth that does not conform to the guidelines in the comprehensive plan, then that growth has been improperly permitted by county officials. Past failures to obey the rules cannot justify the wrongs now proposed. Also, the comprehensive plan did not anticipate serving these areas with public water and sewer. The plan for running water lines throughout the county has not been properly reviewed for conformance with the plan. The county's utilities department is not exempt from such review, and supervisors must see to it that the proposed service areas conform to their adopted plan.

Supervisors will hold a public hearing on July 27 to consider rezoning the Cotton Hill Road sites. The issue here is not just the future of one county neighborhood, but a test of the county's resolve to plan for the future in an orderly and open process - and then abide by the results of that process. If the plan is outdated or wrong, let's do as the law allows and change it. Let's not tolerate actions that violate the law, in our haste to allow a couple of developers to make a buck.

Another local ordinance, written to protect the environment and people of Roanoke County is our erosion and sediment control ordinance. As with the comprehensive plan, the county has a legal obligation under law to enforce this ordinance. However, county officials have apparently decided that the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority is above the law.

The authority is in charge of the Smith Gap Landfill, now under construction in the county's Bradshaw area. Since work began at the site, county and state laws have been violated because of an inadequate plan to handle runoff from the construction area, and because even that deficient plan has been ignored.

In reviewing the county's enforcement of erosion and sediment control ordinances, the state's Division of Soil and Water Conservation has rated the overall program as deficient. We must insist that In light of that, the state's assessment of problems at Smith Gap is especially bad. An April 7 letter to County Administrator Elmer Hodge from a state official says, "Smith Gap Landfill is in a class by itself. For months this project was in progress without the benefit of the sediment basins shown on the approved plans. Other controls were absent as well." The proper controls are still not in place at the landfill site, and county enforcement is nowhere to be seen.

The dire consequences of the Authority's failure to obey the law, and the county's habit of looking the other way, was shown in a July 3 news article in this newspaper ("What's worse than water flooding your basement?"). It told how one family's house has already been inundated with mud from the landfill on two separate occasions. A consultant for the authority tried to disclaim responsibility for the damage caused by the negligence of landfill officials and is quoted as saying, "there's not much you can do with acts of God." But there is something you can do with lawbreakers, and the county government had better get to work and do it.

\ AUTHOR David W. Sligh of Salem is a member of the Roanoke County Preservation League.

by CNB