Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 14, 1993 TAG: 9312290003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Davis spoke a lot during the yearlong controversy over developer Len Boone's plan to rezone land adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Milepost 125 in Southwest Roanoke County. She said Boone and other developers were ``killing the goose that laid the golden egg.''
She said Roanoke County ``has so little vision, it's pathetic.''
When Boone ran a full-page newspaper ad explaining his position, she said, ``If he sells houses with the half-truths he put in this ad, he can't have a satisfied customer in the Roanoke Valley.''
Davis said these and other things in the hoarse, little-girl's voice that perfectly fits her small frame while clashing completely with her stinging words. She didn't win, this time: The county recently limited the number of houses Boone can build on eight acres next to the parkway, but overall he was granted the right to build 200 houses on 83 acres of the Beasley farm. He also plans to develop more land on the other side of the scenic road.
But Davis fought the good fight. Her fiery remarks singed their targets. Incoming fire scorched her in return. The fusillades raised the public's awareness of the parkway, which will face other encroachments in the future.
Davis was frustrated but not defeated. She has not changed her opinion of the county, its decision, or of Boone.
``I think the man has built so many houses and gotten so politicized he has forgotten some of the other components in life,'' she said in a recent interview. ``The bottom line isn't the only thing to consider in life.''
If Boone is allowed to capitalize on the area's scenic beauty by putting houses next to a national treasure, she asks, what is he going to give in return?
Boone declined to comment.
That's another battle for another day that will surely come. Two more timely questions are: Who is Lynn Davis, and what makes her say these things?
\ First, she is a native Roanoker, born here while her father served in the Pacific with the U.S. Coast Guard. Her mother, Nina McLelland, graduated from Jefferson High School. Her uncle, Bob ``Guts'' McLelland, is the retired sports editor of the Roanoke World-News and a legend in sandlot football coaching circles. The playing field at Victory Stadium is named in his honor.
She is a veteran of Blue Ridge Parkway-related work, having joined the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce in the early 1980s when it was organizing the celebration of the 50th anniversaries of the parkway's groundbreaking, in 1985, and its completion in 1987. The late Jack Smith, her boss, founded the nonprofit Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway, an advocacy group, in 1989, the year after he retired. Davis, who is on the board, represented the 800-member group while trying to thwart the recent rezoning.
She is a travel writer and free-lance editor who handled public affairs for the Roanoke River Parkway, the spur road to Explore Park. As co-chairwoman of a household hazardous waste collection day sponsored by the Junior League of Roanoke Valley and the Clean Valley Council in 1992, she saw the event overwhelmed by its success. So many people brought so many hazardous materials for disposal that collection had to be cut off midway through the time allotted for it.
Now, as public affairs officer for the Virginia Sea Grant College Program at Virginia Tech, and for the College of Forestry, she is in her element.
``She's a public-spirited person,'' said Bob Hope, the parkway's landscape architect. Her comments throughout the dispute were ``quite forceful'' and ``very persistent,'' he said, adding, though, ``I don't know at what point you can say you've made your point.''
Davis' relentless bashing of Boone and county officials made lively reading and contrasted dramatically with the low-key, ``good neighbor'' policy of the parkway administration. Some may have feared it was counterproductive, but Davis believed it was necessary to raise public awareness. Boone, a driving businessman, was giving no quarter. She was standing on principle. The identity of her opponent meant nothing.
``It is unusual, particularly in the Southeast, for a gentle, kind, fair-haired girl of Virginia to make the statements she made,'' said Vera Guise, executive director of the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, N.C. ``It may have been shocking to some people, but sometimes the shocking truth is what it takes. I hope she's not apologizing because I don't think an apology is due. We are in full support of everything Lynn did. It was factual and it was from the heart.''
\ Lynn Davis doesn't give up.
Three years ago last June, she came down with what she thought was the flu. She then developed Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disease that attacks the nerves and is sometimes fatal. Davis ended up in the hospital, paralyzed.
She couldn't hold a book, much less read one, so she sustained herself by imagining herself hiking all the trails in Virginia. Recovery took a year. She estimates that she is at 95 percent of her pre-illness abilities.
``The power of prayer - I am a walking testimony to that,'' she said. She calls her family and friends ``my treasure on Earth.''
\ During her early childhood, Davis said, her family always had ``the best-looking lawn in Baltimore.'' Later, in suburban Howard County, Md., she helped her father tend his small orchard and watched as dirt roads were paved and pastures turned into subdivisions.
She and her family witnessed the construction of Columbia, the planned community that started with houses and wound up with high-rises. Her family's property was protected front and rear. Davis' concerns spread beyond her own back yard.
Her family went on camping trips throughout the region, visited a relative's 600-acre farm near Gretna, and encouraged her involvement in Girl Scouts - a lasting influence. They also participated in the Reformed Episcopal Church. She believes in having a personal relationship with God and carrying his ministry into every aspect of her life.
``I believe the Earth has a master design,'' she said, ``and we are the stewards.''
As the oldest of three children, ``I always felt I had to take care of everybody.''
\ Girl Scouts and Junior Leaguers are not the first people who come to mind in nasty rezoning disputes, but Davis saw no incongruity in it. When the issue arose, ``I felt, first, that nobody else wanted, or would, or could [get involved]. I was appalled that nobody else was rallying on that point.''
Early on, she felt like a lonely sentinel protecting the fort. Later, after retired Rep. Jim Olin and parkway officials joined her, she felt better. But other groups with related interests didn't turn out. The Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, for example, has yet to discuss the matter, much less take a stand on it. Davis never asked it to, said Martha Mackey, executive director, and neither did anyone else.
The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce did discuss it, said John Stroud, its president, but did not take a position. ``We have goals and objectives within our organization, and zoning is not one of those,'' Stroud said. ``I think once you get on that road, you're on that road forever.''
The absence of those groups rankled Davis considerably.
She is not an anti-growth extremist bent on preserving the world as it stands, she said. Rather, she believes that the Roanoke Valley's biggest selling point is its natural beauty, its conduit for tourists the Blue Ridge Parkway.
According to a 1987 federal highway study, the parkway generated $1.3 billion in tourism dollars along its two-state, 470-mile length. It brought $98 million in tax revenues to 29 counties and spun off 27,000 jobs. To Davis it is ``The Yellowstone of the East.''
Economically, the parkway is a key player in the valley. But it is often ignored. Gary Everhardt, the parkway superintendent, addressed the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors in the final stages of the conflict and was lambasted.
``I think he's so frustrated ... he doesn't know what to do or how to do it,'' Davis said. His staff is limited because of tight budgets, and ``he doesn't want to ruffle feathers. He wants to err on the side of being a good neighbor to landowners. The last thing Gary wanted was to get in a tangle with Roanoke County officials.''
She has hard words for some of those officials, including supervisors like Bob Johnson, a real estate developer who ``wasn't listening''; Harry Nickens, who ``was playing politics''; and Ed Kohinke, who, she said, describes himself as an outdoorsman but stayed out of the fray, calling it a federal problem.
``Why isn't he fighting for the outdoors for everybody?'' she asked.
Elmer Hodge, the county administrator, seemed genuinely interested in finding a compromise. ``He was being strong-armed by Boone on one side and the Board of Supervisors on the other side,'' Davis said.
``Tourism is now the largest industry in the world, and as that has emerged, what is Roanoke County doing as fast as they can? They're taking away their number one asset.'' In the past, ``People had respect for national treasures and greed wasn't so rampant. Roanoke County wants to develop at all costs. The irony is that residential development doesn't pay its own way, and their own economic development staff said this. I'm quoting them.''
Development, she said, ``needs to be properly placed.''
\ The fight with Boone consumed nearly a year's worth of weekends and nights, and cost her numerous chances to ski, scuba dive and fly-fish with her son, Jason, 17, and husband, Larry. Larry is legal counsel to the Department of Veterans Affairs in Roanoke. She doesn't regret her effort, though, and she does not plan to quit.
Boone, she said, poisoned the atmosphere by filing suit against the county and terminating any possibility of meaningful compromise. His offer to sell some of the land to preservationists was specious because of his staggering asking price.
``I don't think in the long run you can operate on a business basis only,'' Davis said. ``Ultimately, you lose your soul. There's more to life than making money. There's no satisfaction in that, because when is enough enough?''
That kind of talk might shock some people, said Vera Guise, but it galvanized the Friends of the Parkway and brought national attention to the dispute. It also rejuvenated the parkway's headquarters staff, which had been fatigued and demoralized from budget cuts. ``I see a new surge of determination and willingness to take their case to the public,'' she said.
Parkway zoning and other means of coping with growth will be discussed by regional planning groups at a meeting Thursday. That, in itself, might never have happened without Lynn Davis' outspokenness.
``Sometimes, the most honest and loving thing you can do is to just lay it straight out, right on the line, to slice through all the bull,'' Guise said.
by CNB