Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Leslie Hager-Smith has spent the past eight years as Blacksburg’s mayor and another three terms as vice mayor.
She officially retires this month and took a moment this week to look back on her tenure.
“My husband and I have been trying to sync our retirements for some time – he has now finally retired for the second time,” she said in pointing to her reason for stepping down.
The Cincinnati native’s interest in local government is rooted in her early profession as a reporter and columnist for the Roanoke Times. Previously, she was also the director of the Downtown Merchants of Blacksburg, a small business owner and directed Community Programs for the YMCA at Virginia Tech.
Her first term as mayor began in 2018, just after Virginia Tech began to pursue a growth agenda.
According to Hager-Smith, the 2019 over-enrollment fiasco made national news headlines and took the combined efforts of the Town and University to remedy. “Only a year later, began the COVID pandemic, and that also required collaboration and communication of the highest order.”
During her term, she has tried to keep her focus on quality of life in the community, and for her decision-making based on the greater good for all residents.
“We have approved four neighborhoods with workforce housing, and three of them are coming out of the ground now,” she said. “Blacksburg has also added over 700 acres of farmland, forest, open space and historic places since I became mayor.
“We’ve legalized accessory apartments and subdivisions with smaller lots,” she added. “These changes achieve three to four times the previous by-right density, with Traditional Neighborhood Development tools like alleys, shallower setbacks and central green space. In another nod to the past, Blacksburg legalized backyard chickens and we now offer green burials in the town cemetery, a matter of sustainability as well as equity.”
Hager-Smith co-founded Blacksburg’s Summer Solstice Fest; and also originated the 16 Frogs Watershed Initiative, a public arts tribute with an environmental consciousness. She is a founding member of Sustainable Blacksburg and an energetic advocate for trails and bikeway connections in the region.
Of course, the outgoing mayor said the town’s future challenge continues to be in dealing with the growth of Virginia Tech.
“As the university continues to expand, town taxpayers will be hard-pressed to pay for infrastructure, services, and police,” she said. “We love our students, but they do not pay their way in taxes. The commercial real estate taxes that they contribute by renting are collected by the county, not the town. It’s an untenable situation since 2/3 of our population is now students.”
A suggestion, according to the outgoing mayor, is that Blacksburg needs a “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” (PILOT) from Virginia Tech.
“Across the US, over 70 colleges and universities have PILOT agreements, benefitting over 280 localities in 28 states,” she said. “These are arrangements that can contribute significantly toward the cost of the public services that universities and their student populations consume.”
PILOT is a payment made to a local government to compensate for property lost due to the presence of tax-exempt property owned by another entity, such as Virginia Tech.
The purpose is to help local governments in providing essential services such as law enforcement, fire services and road maintenance on and around these lands, thus offsetting the final burden of untaxable property.
As the largest property owner in Blacksburg and Montgomery County, Virginia Tech continues to expand. The student body is nearing 38,000 and puts significant pressure on the town’s infrastructure, services and housing availability.
Enrollment modeling suggests undergraduate numbers reaching 40,000 by 2030.
So far, in the other PILOT agreements around the country, the amount each locality receives has been determined by a statutory formula.
The outgoing mayor knows this will be one of the challenges, facing council as she steps down.
Hager-Smith and her husband, Eric, hope to spend more time in retirement with our three grown children and eight grandchildren.
