Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 7, 1993 TAG: 9311070139
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Franklin County voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on zoning for two districts that border the scenic roadway.
The referendum served as a reminder that fewer than half of the 29 counties along the 470-mile parkway have land-use regulations.
Without local zoning ordinances, planners have no say in what takes place on private property visible from the parkway corridor, which in most places is no more than 500 feet wide.
Lack of zoning along the parkway is just one problem confronting regional planning groups that have been invited to a Nov. 18 meeting in Boone, N.C.
"I've heard comments that we're 20 years too late, but you have to start somewhere," said Wayne Strickland, executive director of the Fifth Planning District Commission in Roanoke.
Strickland said the gathering will help gauge interest in a comprehensive approach to planning.
"We certainly understand going into this that a number of communities do not have zoning and may not want to pursue zoning," he said. "But if the resource is important enough, they may want to look at other alternatives.
"This may be our first and last meeting, I don't know."
One topic of discussion is certain to be a recent Roanoke County zoning decision, which proved that even a county with relatively progressive zoning regulations has limited power to prevent suburban sprawl from encroaching on the parkway.
Roanoke County gave developer Len Boone the right to build more than 200 houses on 83 acres along the parkway in Southwest Roanoke County. The county limited the number of houses Boone can build on eight acres directly along the parkway, but many preservationists considered that a hollow victory.
"I don't think the agreement that was reached in Roanoke County is going to be satisfactory in the long run," said Jim Olin, a retired congressman who has taken an interest in protecting parkway vistas.
Olin said the key to future efforts is to have comprehensive regulations in place so that developers know the rules before they eye land near the parkway.
By the time it began a parkway study in February, Roanoke County was embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Boone over rights to develop the Beasley property, a farm near mile marker 125 and bisected by the parkway.
The county's 10-month review process turned into an exercise in litigation settlement rather than a study of land-use planning.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge named an ad hoc committee to take a comprehensive look at a 27-mile stretch of parkway that cuts through Roanoke County. But the inclusion of Boone on the committee kept attention focused on the Beasley property.
Boone managed to get nearly everything he wanted from the committee. The final settlement with the Board of Supervisors was almost identical to a plan Boone proposed back in December 1992.
"He didn't give up anything," said Lynn Davis, a Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway representative assigned to the county's ad hoc committee.
The Board of Supervisors favored a negotiated settlement with Boone because they feared he would prevail if his lawsuit went to trial.
The bottom line is that localities, especially those in Virginia, lack the power necessary to stop suburbia from spoiling the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Olin said counties along the parkway could look to state legislatures in Richmond and Raleigh, N.C., for special powers along the parkway corridor.
It would have been helpful, for instance, if Roanoke County had the power to impose architectural guidelines, so that houses built near the parkway blend with the rustic setting.
A list of "visual quality guidelines" compiled by Carlton Abbott, a Williamsburg architect and son of parkway designer Stanley Abbott, includes weathered-wood siding, stone chimneys, porches and wood-shake roofs.
Boone submited voluntary guidelines that included many of the same features, but the list also left the door open for Boone to build two-story brick Colonials.
One day, parkway visitors driving past the Beasley farm could get a good look at houses that are alien to the Blue Ridge.
"Brick was not traditional to the mountains, because these guys picked up whatever they had to make their buildings," Abbott said.
by CNB