ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050058
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SO, LUGS is holding up the growth of Bedford County?
That's a bit hard to swallow. This county is the fastest-growing Virginia locality west of Interstate 95.
The Land Use Guidance System, unique in the commonwealth, is limiting growth in parts of Bedford County. Now that goes down easier. It also makes sense.
LUGS is designed, after all, to guide growth. And while its differences from traditional zoning may give it some drawbacks, the county's Board of Supervisors should remember its advantages before considering chucking it entirely for countywide zoning - or, for that matter, no controls at all.
The process has a few cumbersome steps, which might be streamlined. But by parroting developers' complaints of a roadblock across the fast lane to glorious prosperity, county supervisors are doing their constituents and their beautiful county's future no favors.
LUGS allows neighbors whose lives and property values will be affected to have a say in land-use decisions. And, unlike traditional zoning, any use seen as an asset by the surrounding community can be allowed without fear of a domino rezoning effect. A shop or restaurant - gathering places zoned out of most residential developments - can be welcomed without changing the character of an entire neighborhood.
All of that community participation is slower, of course, than simply building where there is proper zoning for a project. The LUGS process can take two or three months. But getting a decision on a project requiring a rezoning is likely to take as long or longer - three to four months in Roanoke County.
And traditional zoning can discourage the kind of mixed uses - dense development amid open space, neighborhood commercial development within walking distance of housing - that can enhance quality of life far better than endless sprawl.
LUGS' restrictions also mean that, as with traditional zoning, not every landowner and developer can build whatever they want on any piece of land. (Sorry, you can't put a hazardous-waste dump on your own property.)
Inevitably, such limits sometimes bump up against the desires of landowners to maximize profits. Positive steps, such as encouraging voluntary restrictive deeds and land trusts, need to be taken to help farmers in particular.
But, please, can we stop suggesting that LUGS prevents residents from exercising the right to sell their property? LUGS does nothing of the sort.
People living in a rural zone can still subdivide their land if they want, without getting the county's permission. They may not be able to subdivide it as much as they'd like. But the government's job isn't to maximize any particular owners' speculative return without regard to the impact on other taxpayers and the community at large.
The agitators' real problem isn't so much with LUGS as with the county's comprehensive plan. LUGS merely provides a means of enforcing the plan, which attempts to guide growth. More traditional zoning would presumably do the same. Which raises the question: How would it help the county to throw away its own comprehensive plan?
The alternative, of course, is to have no controls at all, hardly a reasonable option in a fast-growth area like Bedford County. If Bedford wants to quicken the pace of development, it could consider zoning for areas clearly marked for development. But the county would be ill-advised to bulldoze under LUGS in a rush to build one more subdivision.
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