ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605130005
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
Grant money could be on the way to help Blacksburg officials catalog historic buildings in downtown Blacksburg and develop guidelines to preserve them.
The town has applied for $19,168 in state funding, which it would match with $8,720 of town staff time and resources. The money would be used in two ways:
A consultant would be hired to document all historic structures in the Blacksburg Historic District, which includes much of downtown, according to state and federal standards.
Standards for rehabilitation, restoration and new designs would be developed that are specific to the Blacksburg Historic District.
Both of these phases will include public meetings. The idea is to eventually use these guidelines in what are called historic overlay districts, which are special zoning classifications designed to preserve a neighborhood's historic structures and character.
The issue of historic districts was controversial last year when the town considered placing this special zoning classification in the Miller-Southside neighborhood. After a survey showed 60 percent of the residents there did not favor the special zoning, which many feared was too restrictive, Town Council voted against the proposal.
The problem was that residents would have been held to state and national design guidelines that had not been modified to fit the needs of the individual neighborhood, said Jack Davis, a Virginia Tech professor who serves on the town's historic architectural design and review board.
"In general, it was too restrictive and the sense was that maybe it wasn't as applicable to that neighborhood than if it was written by local professionals," he said.
The town's request for grant money covers only the Blacksburg Historic District, not the Miller-Southside neighborhood, however. If the first two phases are successful, the town later would apply for more grant money that would be used to create guidelines specifically for Miller-Southside, said Carol Bousquet, the town's comprehensive planner.
The survey of historic structures in the Blacksburg Historic District would begin in July if the town is awarded the grant money. A decision should be made within the next few weeks.
A survey of the Blacksburg Historic District was begun during the 1980s but was never finished. At the time, according to the grant application, only 56 structures were fully documented, although 139 buildings were identified as more than 50 years old and another 36 were shown to be less than 50 years old.
Some of the buildings may have historic significance, such as the Lyric Theater in downtown Blacksburg, while other structures may have important architectural features, Bousquet said. "We're looking at developing guidelines now that are specific to the district," she said. "What makes this area unique?"
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