Liz Kirchner
communitynews@ourvaley.org
Downtown Blacksburg Inc., the town’s merchant association, is encouraging all residents to participate in the surveys guiding the strategic planning of the town.
“It’s important that everybody participates in the survey and public meetings because the town is asking for their input,” Laureen Blakemore, director of Downtown Blacksburg said.
The town recommends a citizen start by viewing the Strategic Planning powerpoint presented at the Downtown Strategy Public Meeting in mid-December and then contribute to the conversation through the two online surveys.
The two surveys collect residents’ ideas: one, an overall view of the downtown they hope to see, and the second, their architectural preferences.
The deadline for survey participation is Jan. 23, 2018.
The strategic planning process involves many parts of a community, each with visions and goals that may be shared or may conflict. A democratic, strategic approach tries build a community that works in the future.
“It’s not just communities, but also institutions, businesses large and small, foundations, and non-profits,” Downtown Blacksburg wrote in a press release.
“Strategic planning is important for all of these different types of entities because no entity exists in a vacuum – it is continually impacted by changes in the world around it,” they said.
The surveys can be found at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/downtownbbsurvey or
www.surveymonkey.com/r/archpreference.
