Liz Kirchner
communitynews@ourvalley.org
March 13 promises to be a busy evening for the Blacksburg Town Council as last week’s meeting scheduled and rescheduled several public hearings that will weigh in on how people can picket, the prospects for affordable housing downtown and the hotly contested rezoning of a parcel on Airport Road.
During last Tuesday’s 30-minute meeting, council accepted the new handbook and strategic goals developed at last month’s council retreat (the minutes of which are available on the town website), and adopted a resolution opposing harmful telecommunication bills.
In a pause, Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith welcomed visiting cub scouts and a university real-estate management class, both interested in how civic proceedings work.
The council approved with plaudits the ordinance rezoning 3.729 Acres at 116 and 120 Hearthstone Drive, an apartment complex, from multi-unit residential to planned residential.
The council commended the proposal, submitted by civil engineers Gay and Neel, and developer Michael Beck, an owner of Hearthstone Apartments, especially for the planned innovations in rainwater harvesting.
During public comment, a citizen appreciated the development’s easy-to-use innovative techniques to reduce stormwater run-off and recommended rainwater harvesting be used in future Blacksburg developments.
The proposal was also complimented by several council members, who suggested they would use it as a measure of future submissions.
“I’m going to be increasingly critical about the ones (planned residential development proposals) we’re seeing,” councilman John Bush said. “What’s nice about this one is that it’s clear, it’s respectful, sober and moderate. It’s in-fill asking for a specific thing to be granted, so that a specific kind of design can be achieved.”
Others agreed.
“This is a good infill development and includes the rainwater harvesting, something we’ve seen rarely,” councilman Michael Sutphin said.
Councilwoman Susan Anderson complimented the space-saving “podium” parking design.
During the meeting’s public comment, two citizens spoke opposing Ordinance 1853, the hotly contested rezoning 801-803 Airport Road.
Summarizing in the allotted three minutes, the two hours of public hearing voiced by nearly 30 citizens at the Feb. 6 planning commission meeting.
The commission voted 2-2 with two abstaining, sending a “no recommendation” to the town council, leaving the body to make the final decision following a public hearing at the March 13 meeting.
The Lester Group development on Airport Road, next door to Margaret Beeks Elementary School, has proposed a collection of single and multi-family buildings.
The developers proffer the development as “aging-in-place” qualifying residents by age restrictions. The Airport Acres neighbors, however, are concerned about the scale of the new development’s height and style beside the existing mid-century neighborhood.
They question whether three-story buildings are truly aging-in-place development and worry the residents will devolve into non-resident “football condos.”
The neighborhood has collected 160 written comments, 560 signatures, posted yard signs and tied a large red ribbon 450 feet up in a spruce to demonstrate the height of one of the proposed buildings.
Also moved to March 13 is the public hearing of the ordinance that will define how people may picket and protest in Blacksburg.
The town code regarding picketing is being revisited in light of last summer’s violent protests in Charlottesville.
Town Attorney Larry Spencer told the council at a morning work session meeting that he preferred to have the matter acted on at the March 13 meeting.
“I needed the time to draft a couple of revisions to the ordinance and send the revised language back out to them (the council),” he said. “I was also continuing to discuss the ordinance with other local government attorneys who have been doing research on all aspects of these types of ordinances.”
Spencer has let members of the community activist group Showing Up for Racial Justice, know about the new public hearing date and the revised text, he said.
SURJ New River Valley is a local arm of a national organization that has been involved in updating the ordinance.
Concerns have been raised by community groups about fees levied by ordinances that may effectively bar groups from gathering.
A spokesperson for Coalition for Justice, another group that has been contributing ideas to the development of the final guidelines, was interested in protecting all groups’ rights to gather spontaneously.
“Normally, we hold vigils/rallies on Henderson Lawn—which is not affected by the ordinance. We do notify police if we march in town because of concerns for the safety of participants in crossing the streets. Our rallies can be quite large after all,” she wrote in an email.
A march of ten people or more on the sidewalks requires notice to the police department.
Currently, edits to the ordinance say that a march on a public street does require a permit because the street has to be closed, but a march using sidewalks doesn’t require a permit.
“I’ve tried to be very deliberate in our process and it has taken some time, but I’m pretty confident it will be acted on next month,” Spencer wrote in an email.
Also discussed at the meeting was Virginia Tech’s Big Event, scheduled for April 7, and was described by representatives as “really awesome;” town council and everyone was encouraged to reach out to neighbors to participate in the day when students, faculty and staff work together to achieve a new goal of 10,000 community service projects completed throughout Blacksburg, Christiansburg and the New River Valley.
