Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
That's especially so in the town's historic, commercial and cultural core - the central residential and business districts comprising the town's original 16 square miles and several blocks on each side of Main Street, primarily between Prices Fork Road and Clay Street.
That area includes the fast-food restaurants on Turner and Main streets and the offices and studios on Clay and Washington streets; the houses and apartments off Prices Fork Road and the upper end of Clay Street; the bars and restaurants in the immediate downtown; and the fraternity houses on Roanoke Street.
So in December 1993, the town commissioned K.W. Poore and Associates Inc., a Richmond-based group of community consultants, to study the area.
Monday night, the Town Council and Planning Commission met jointly to discuss the study's observations and recommendations.
Here's a smattering of what the group has envisioned and suggested:
To improve transportation, extend Harding Avenue from Progress Street through to Main Street where it passes the Tech Mall, extend Prices Fork Road across Main to Progress Street, connect Progress and Church streets (running an extension smack dab through the building which houses the Greater Blacksburg Chamber of Commerce) and realign Giles Road.
Commercially speaking, try to attract specialty shops, cafes and upscale restaurants downtown; develop a plaza or town center for festivals and a farmers market; bring back the Lyric Theatre; and improve pedestrian access and lighting.
In the area near Turner, Gilbert and Barger streets, create higher-density housing that's attractive to Tech students, encourage Greek housing and build commercial operations that cater to the walker rather than the driver.
In the central residential district, work to remove areas of blight and deteriorated homes; make Wharton Street into a historical trail of sorts, noting sites like the Price House; create a "pedestrian promenade" around the Thomas Conner house that connects to the Huckleberry Trail and up to Church Street; encourage a mixed-use atmosphere of single-family homes, bed-and-breakfasts, galleries and studios around Washington, Clay and Otey streets.
The suggestions are so varied and far-reaching that they will no doubt continue to spark debate as they are examined by committees rewriting the town's zoning ordinances and updating the comprehensive plan.
"That's what it's leading up to," said Senior Planner Duane Hyde. "These are all recommendations."
Monday night, Planning Commission and council members grappled with a variety of ideas that would address parking deficits, build up the vitality of downtown, provide for families who want to own their own home and the hordes of students who rent, and bring in more commercial operations to an already space-distressed area while limiting the height of buildings.
Members debated plenty. Councilman Waldon Kerns took issue often, completely disagreeing with the report's conclusions on the area west of Draper Road from Roanoke Street to Clay Street. The consultant envisioned single- and double-unit dwellings, specialty shops and offices, and no multiunit dwellings like apartment complexes; Kerns - and Councilwoman Frances Parsons - see the area as ideal for a retirement community.
"I don't think the consultant did us a lot of good with this report," Kerns said. "Everything in here contradicts itself."
Mayor Roger Hedgepeth appeared to defend the $37,500 report, though, saying of the consultant: "His charge was to describe what's there and what might be there, and give us some tools ... as opposed to being an action plan.
"The whole idea is to try to find some new tools to try to allow some of these things to happen."
The town plans to forward comments and suggestions from its leaders and citizens to the consultant, who should make a final revision of the study by summer. Citizens can peruse the study at the town's Department of Planning and Engineering, located in the Municipal Building.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***