Panel Gives Nod to Industrial Land-Use Plan along Highway in West Virginia.

By Scott Finn, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jun. 6--The steering committee for the new U.S. 35 has given a tentative thumbs-up to a "Maximum Industrial" land-use plan that would place most of Fraziers Bottom and land around Buffalo into an industrial zone.

Details of the plan are still being worked out, and both the county planning commission and county commission would have to approve any zoning plan. But the steering committee's recommendations will provide the blueprint for zoning along the new four-lane highway.

Jimmy Thaxton and his mother live on the historic Alexander Farm in Fraziers Bottom. Thaxton said many residents don't know about the zoning plan, even though it will have a huge impact on their future.

"Once the residents of Fraziers Bottom find out about it, they might not be so agreeable to what's going on," Thaxton said.

County Commissioner Jim Caruthers has led the effort to preserve much of the flat land along the Kanawha River for industry.

"There aren't other parts of the county that are suitable for industry. This is about the only game in town," Caruthers said. "People are going to look at us in the future and ask why we didn't hold onto this for industrial property."

Caruthers says the county's tax base is lopsided, with too much residential growth and not enough commercial and industrial growth. The average residential property demands $1.22 in services for every dollar it pays in taxes, according to county planner Marjorie Ryan, while a commercial or industrial property only demands 32 cents for every dollar it pays.

Thaxton said the "Maximum Industrial" alternative was the worst one for current residents of Fraziers Bottom. He has talked with his neighbors about incorporating the area into a new town if they are not satisfied with the zoning plan.

A zoning plan tells residents how they can develop their land in the future. Current landowners would be able to continue to live in their homes or farm their land, even if their land is zoned industrial. They would also be able to sell it or give it to someone else who would use the land in the same way. But landowners in an industrial zone would not be allowed to build a housing subdivision on their land.

Many residents say they want their relatives to be able to build houses on their land, even if it is zoned industrial. Caruthers says he understands that desire, since he lives on land that his family has owned for 200 years. Any zoning code would have to be flexible enough to allow for sons and daughters to build on their parents' land, he said.

County officials are expected to vote on a final plan by the end of the year. Thaxton is urging his neighbors to get involved in the steering committee as it comes up with a detailed zoning plan.

"Families have lived up here for decades, tucked away in the northern end of the county," Thaxton said. "Now all of sudden, the county sees an opportunity to get a tax base from flat land, at the expense of people who live there."

The next meeting of the U.S. 35 Steering Committee is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 2 at the Putnam County Courthouse in Winfield. The land-use maps are available on the Internet at www.putnamcounty.org/planning/tcsp.

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(c) 2001, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.