ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603180013
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: New River Journal
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN
What in the world is happening in Christiansburg?
For years, Christiansburg has remained the quietest of towns despite the new commercial city growing within its borders.
Its Town Council has worn the same faces year after year; its members even attending the same church.
Their meetings attracted only the rare visitor or delegation.
But times are changing.
People are showing up at council meetings to speak out about recreation, traffic problems and street projects.
And this spring's election for three seats on the Town Council has drawn eight candidates.
What's going on?
The easy answer is to attribute the interest to one highly visible issue - the heated debate over a new recreation center to be housed in the old Lowe's building.
The tug-of-war over the center, however, is just one of several symptoms of the stress caused by the town's rapid growth as a commercial center and as a bedroom community for the valley.
Christiansburg has seen an explosion of subdivisions in the past few years.
New houses mean young families; young families mean children; and more children mean demands for schools and recreation - demands far beyond what this quiet, homogeneous town has had to contemplate before.
The town can dump the worry about building new schools in the lap of the county supervisors - but not recreation.
This is one of the first areas to see a testy debate between the traditional town fathers and a vocal group of parents. The town fathers see in an old Lowe's building an economical and common-sense way to satisfy the need for a recreation center.
Their critics want nice facilities for their teen-age children and will never be satisfied with an old building with jury-rigged seating and cramped ball courts.
These younger, newer residents bring different expectations for town services to this courthouse town - and the debate over what level of service and how to pay for it will only grow louder.
The town's commercial growth has brought new prosperity and clout to the town - property tax revenue has grown by almost 40 percent in the past six years.
But growth has also brought greater headaches and escalating complaints about traffic and planning.
A new Wal-Mart Supercenter, opening this month, will draw more cars to the town's commercial strip along U.S. 460 and Peppers Ferry Road, adding to the 5 p.m. grumbling and fenderbenders.
What happened in Christiansburg, like what happened in most rapidly growing areas, is that commercial growth has driven highway planning, rather than vice versa, according to Virginia Tech urban planner John Levy.
Too many business exits, too many sprawled developments, too many stoplights add to the traffic gridlock. Add to that a lack of communication and cooperation among the three physically interlinked communities of Christiansburg, Blacksburg and Montgomery County, and you have problems.
Grumbling about 460 has become a popular pastime in the New River Valley. Average Joes become instant urban planners as they sit backed up in traffic. The area has become a victim of its own success and excess.
Add to this the concern about downtown Christiansburg, as the town's chief bank begins relocating its headquarters and the post office contemplates a move.
What you have is a bucketful issues for a town election.
A dialogue about its future might be just what the doctor ordered for Christiansburg.
Judging from the letters to the editor, town residents are talking about and debating the issues of their community's growth like never before. Maybe this year we'll get more than 14 percent voter turnout.
Truman Daniel's retirement guarantees at least one new face on Town Council.
And his parting advice? "You have to look ahead," said Daniel, and serve the people, all the people.
That's not an easy assignment in a town changing as fast as Christiansburg.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 linesby CNB