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Fr ia Pa<»e 10 wi^provided for by the General Assembly. The legislature is expected to act on the proposed scenic river designation next year. At a public informational meeting held two weeks ago in Culpeper, a number of riverfront landowners from Orange and Culpeper Counties announced their opposition to the scenic river designation. They were opposed to any government action to protect the two rivers. They basically felt that if the state is permitted to call the rivers “scenic,” next the state will be condemning their land.
ROB BLACKMORE, the Director of the Commission of Outdoor Recreation, has said that no land will be condemned if the two rivers are designated “scenic.” The Commission cannot condemn land, he said. Blackmore said that any agency named to administer the two rivers if they were designated as scenic would not have the right to condemnation, either. However, there has been some question of this, and Blackmore has asked the Attorney General for a ruling. Nonetheless, Blackmore feels that the legislature will not give any agency the right to condemnation on a scenic river.
The Orange and Culpeper landowners were also opposed to any forced land use and zoning controls. Blackmore. however, has argued that the zoning controls already in existence in most of the counties bordered by the two rivers are adequate for protection. The scenic river agency will be empowered to take scenic easements on properties, if the landowners so desire.
In response to the opposition from the landowners, some officials have expressed the fear that the state will drop the scenic river designation, enabling the federal government to name the rivers as National Scenic River. State and federal officials have said that both rivers do meet scenic river criteria. But with federal designation, condemnation of land for parkland could occur.
But Blackmore has said that the Department of the Interior could not designate the two rivers under the National Scenic River Act unless the Virginia legislature agrees. However, an act of Congress could override that.
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