Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994 TAG: 9403010131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Supervisor Joe Stewart, 79, raised his hand when I-73 foe Donald Sunshine asked if any of the six members present was willing to reconsider the resolution in favor of a route passing through the county.
"Anytime I think we made a mistake, I'm willing to change my mind," Stewart said later.
Supervisor Jim Moore, who represents many of the residents affected by a proposed route to the Roanoke area via the Catawba Valley, also said later the board should reconsider its endorsement. Moore missed the Jan. 10 vote due to illness, but had been the member who asked that it be added to the agenda.
Supervisor Nick Rush said he hadn't made up his mind, but "the board might have been a little preliminary."
Members of the crowd, spurred on by newly obtained, more detailed maps of the proposed routes through Giles and Montgomery counties that were posted in the hallway outside the meeting room, shouted disapproval when Chairman Larry Linkous said the board would not consider a motion to rescind the endorsement Monday night.
"We don't have time," one man yelled. Highway planners are expected to make a recommendation to the state Transportation Board this month or next. Resident highway engineer Dan Brugh said Monday it would be unlikely for the board to take action on the recommendation the same month it received it.
"Your comments were heard folks," Linkous said. "Just because we don't act on them tonight doesn't mean they weren't heard."
Montgomery resident Robin Boucher obtained the new maps on Friday by paying $54 to the state Transportation Department. The topographical maps are far more detailed than any of the so-called "corridor maps" distributed at a series of public information meetings last month and in January across Southwest Virginia.
"Most people think [I-73 is] going to follow the existing [U.S.] 460," Boucher said. "They don't understand they're going to put another highway in there," in some cases paralleling U.S. 460 by as much as a mile, and passing through Clover and other scenic parts of Giles and Montgomery.
"That is where people have been misinformed, uninformed," Boucher said. "We haven't been making this up, it's very frightening."
The standing-room only crowd at the Montgomery County Courthouse was the largest here since the controversy in December 1992 over the use of secular names for school holidays.
Emotions ran high as nine I-73 opponents - limited to three minutes each by board rules - attacked the planned routes through the New River Valley, and asked the board to go to bat for them. Many of the same opponents spoke out before the Blacksburg Town Council last week.
Shireen Parsons, a self-described "refugee from Fairfax County," said the alternatives through Montgomery under consideration by highway planners would cost at least two times as much as running the proposed interstate from Bluefield, W.Va., to Winston-Salem, N.C., via the existing Interstate 77.
"Highways do not bring economic development," said Parsons, a Riner resident. "They bring ugly urban sprawl."
Mark Hiluman said state Transportation Department figures he's seen indicate two of the routes through Montgomery - following U.S. 460 or the route of the proposed "smart road" through the Ellet Valley - would cost as much as $1.2 billion each. The route up the Catawba Valley would cost an estimated $1.6 billion, Hileman said.
Another man yelled out, demanding that Moore release copies of an unscientific constituents' survey he said showed District A residents favored I-73 coming through Montgomery. Moore had earlier released copies to the press and fellow board members.
Retired Virginia Tech professor Dan Fleming said if I-73 became reality, there would be four routes between Blacksburg and Interstate 81. "You'll have more roads here than in Fairfax County, congratulations," Fleming said.
Brugh said after the meeting that the maps, which Boucher obtained from state highway official Joe Orcutt in Richmond, may or may not show the actual route planners will study in detail.
He said highway planners are now focusing on broad, general corridors. If the Transportation Board adopted one, the next step would be to find money to pay for a detailed corridor study. A similar process knocked the Catawba Valley route out of consideration several years ago when planners were searching for ways to speed the route between Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Brugh said. That search led to the "smart road" proposal and the planned new connector between the bypasses of those towns.
The board passed the I-73 resolution on Jan. 10 with only the barest of information about the various alternatives under consideration by state transportation officials.
But the Montgomery Regional Economic Development Commission got out of the gate even earlier. The advisory body voted Nov. 18 to support an I-73 route through Montgomery because the "efforts undertaken by Montgomery County to attract and retain quality industries and businesses are directly impacted by the availability of transportation."
The county Planning Commission considered taking a similar step in December, but chose not to after Chairman Jeff London questioned whether another an interstate would in fact help the county. The planners then voted 5-2 to urge the Board of Supervisors to wait for more information before taking a stand. One commissioner suggested publicly that the supervisors might want to seek public comment before taking a vote.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***