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

DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993                   TAG: 9308020359
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PARKWAY ISSUE PART OF NATIONAL MOVEMENT

REGARDING THE proposed plan to allow residential construction directly beside the Blue Ridge Parkway in Roanoke County:

I am a native Roanoker and seventh-generation Virginian; in Colorado I work with historic preservation and environmental protection organizations.

Unless Roanokers want to parallel the rest of America's urban blight, they should pay no attention to projects proposed by Len Boone and Steve Strauss. If the parkway is not valued by you as a rare treasure and a source of tourism dollars, skip this letter. Otherwise I urge you to look upon the Blue Ridge Parkway as a state and national treasure that needs citizens' attention immediately.

Each of you has the right to voice a dissenting opinion on the Boone and Strauss proposals and the ideas of the Roanoke County officials. This is not merely a county concern. You are in the midst of a national historic landscape preservation issue.

Get informed and get busy or you will be humming Joni Mitchell's tune: "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot". ELIZABETH BARBOUR TELLURIDE, COLO.

by CNB