Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104050072
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Ann Hess
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
My children might still be here, although they may be grandparents by then. So I have been curious about what the town will look like for them.
Will the courthouse still be on the corner or will it have been torn down? Will a "smart" highway be going through downtown or will the circle still be there? Will there be a park with trees or a parking lot? Will they need parking lots or will people use some other form of transportation such as subways or helicopters?
Will a building used for county offices before 1834 still be there for them to see that kind of architecture?
Who knows?
But the decisions we make now will dictate what downtown Christiansburg will be. And maybe we can best do it by planning ahead, and planning for the long term - longer even than my children's lifetimes.
We have a lot of options right now. In addition to the courthouse, Montgomery County owns the Angle property, a large block of a building that fronts on Main Street. It also owns the annex, which used to be known as the Phlegar building on Franklin Street.
The Phlegar building qualifies for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as an example of a government building from the 1840s.
Henry Jablonski, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, indicated he wanted a decision on what to do with the annex and the Angle building and the land on which they stand by April 8.
Anything is possible - from a private individual buying and moving them to preserving them as historic buildings.
The Town of Christiansburg property is in this same few blocks of downtown. The town, like the county, needs space and parking.
St. Thomas Episcopal Church at Roanoke and East Main streets will be influenced by the decisions of both the town and the county. The Montgomery Museum is just a little farther down Pepper Street near the county's Social Services Building. This is the planned location of a new Health and Human Services Building.
Members of the Board of Supervisors have their ideas of what to do with these structures. And so do many private citizens. I have heard from many of them, especially during the "Office Hours at Lunch" sessions, Mondays at noon at the Old Town Deli.
A common thread among the suggestions has been to do a master plan for downtown Christiansburg. It would allow these properties to be addressed in a way that would contribute to a developing character of Christiansburg and still recognize and enhance current structures.
Based on citizen discussion, I am proposing that the county initiate a cooperative design planning process, working with groups in Christiansburg.
We can plan for a Health and Human Services Building to take advantage of the most cost-efficient financing and provide for the office space needed by these agencies.
We can commit the county to preserving the annex and retaining its character as the Phlegar Building.
We can look at the Angle property in the long term. It has been viewed primarily as the obvious expansion area for county offices. But others look on it as a small downtown park and parking lot. With the Bicentennial celebration coming in 1992, Jim Moore has dubbed this possibility as Bicentennial Park.
There is assistance for doing this. Virginia Tech offers a Community Design Assistance Center that is open to doing a conceptual plan for downtown. The cost would be about $3,500.
Members of the Chamber of Commerce, Junior Women's Club of Montgomery County, Daughters of the American Revolution, New River Valley Arts Council, Montgomery Museum, and downtown property owners have indicated support for a comprehensive plan.
Our decisions will have a visual impact on the downtown. So our children might have a bit of history preserved, a park with green spaces to enjoy and a viable downtown in which to conduct business and government affairs.
by CNB