ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Lede
Calling Roanoke Mayor David Bowers' bluff, the new chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors said Tuesday that maybe it's time the county became a city.
The comment by Supervisor Bob Johnson came during a public hearing over an amendment to the county charter that would effectively ban any annexation of the county by Roanoke or Salem. Johnson was responding to comments in Tuesday's Roanoke Times by Bowers, who suggested that the annexation proposal would give Roanoke County the benefits of being both a county and a city at the same time.
"I just say fine, then," said Johnson, who was elected chairman of the board minutes earlier.
Johnson told County Attorney Paul Mahoney to start looking into the possibility of the county asking the General Assembly for a city charter.
"What you call yourself is incidental to me," Johnson said. "Our government operates more like a city, if you will, than a county."
Mahoney agreed. Changing from a county to a city wouldn't have that much effect on residents, he said.
"Essentially, you're looking at a change in name," Mahoney said. "We pretty much do what a city does."
But not everyone on the board was enthusiastic about Johnson's suggestion.
Supervisor Lee Eddy said he doesn't see any advantage in the county becoming a city. In fact, there may be some disadvantages, he said.
"We still have a lot of rural land," Eddy said. "I think rural residents would feel they weren't thoroughly represented."
County Circuit Court Clerk Steve McGraw - who was on the Board of Supervisors when the idea of becoming a city was raised in the mid-1980s - said the issue is merely resurfacing from annexation battles in the past.
"I think Roanoke County should have the same guarantees [that its boundaries are secure] as the city," McGraw said.
The General Assembly has granted Roanoke County immunity from city-initiated annexations. And since the late 1980s, there has been a moratorium on citizen-initiated annexations.
As originally drafted, the charter amendment also would have effectively banned annexation of county land by the town of Vinton. But after protests by Vinton officials, the Board of Supervisors dropped that provision.
The amendment could not take effect without approval from two-thirds of the delegates and senators in the General Assembly. So far, it doesn't have a sponsor. For counties to become cities is nothing new in the state. But M.H. Wilkinson, executive director of the state Commission on Local Government, said no county has ever done so except by annexation or consolidation.
Chesterfield and Henrico counties submitted bills to become cities in the 1970s but never went through with them. And Fairfax and Arlington counties recently have considered becoming cities.
But, "unilaterally, through their own devices, it has never been done," Wilkinson said.
Two major differences if the county became a city would be road maintenance and construction, and long-term debt.
The Virginia Department of Transportation maintains roads within the county now. A city is responsible for maintaining its own roads, although the state gives it money to do so.
A city has a state-mandated limit on how much money it can borrow to pay for capital projects such as schools. A county has no limit, although voters must approve debt that will be repaid from general tax revenues.
The Board of Supervisors will await Mahoney's report before going any further with the idea of becoming a city. Meanwhile, the county must find a lawmaker to sponsor the proposed charter amendment that would effectively ban annexation.
Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, who almost certainly would have to introduce either request in the General Assembly, wasn't in town Tuesday to comment.
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said the amendment could face a problem in the legislature because no other county in the state has such provisions in its charter.
Woodrum also said he has not heard of any recent threats of annexation by the city.
"It's kind of like picking a fight over something that's not a big issue," Woodrum said.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Bob Johnson, the new chairman of theby CNBRoanoke County Board of
Supervisors leaves the board meeting Tuesday. color.