As Blacksburg decides to accept or reject the rezoning of the 22.5-acre old Blacksburg Middle School property on South Main Street, the last opportunity for public input to the Blacksburg Planning Commission is scheduled for next Tuesday.
The Blacksburg Planning Commission will hold a public hearing and then vote on recommendations to town council on Sept. 4 contributing to the final decision on the rezoning and development of the town’s flagship old Blacksburg Middle School property on Main Street.
Following that evening’s public comment, the commission will make its recommendation to the town council, which will then discuss and ultimately vote on the project at a yet to-be-determined date.
Public input was also collected at a May neighborhood meeting, and at least 24 pages of written comments were submitted to the town website page specifically dedicated to the rezoning of this town-defining location.
Currently, the property is zoned Low Density Residential accommodating four houses per acre (R-4).
Through the year, the developer, Midtown Development Partners, Blacksburg citizens living near, and not so near the property, and small-business people have weighed in on what appears to be, judging from developer Powerpoints and pattern books, a sleek, contemporary mix of commercial, retail, office, restaurant and residential uses.
“Blacksburg is growing,” developer James Cowan said, raising the spectre of 400 new faculty, 200 full-time professionals, 5000 students slated to arrive in Blacksburg over the next decade. “Those folks are coming,” Cowan said. “And where are we going to put them. The good news is we live in a town that works to plan for and accommodate growth.”
The development proposal describes the nine acres along South Main Street rezoned from its current R-4, Low Density Residential to DC, Downtown Commercial.
The remaining 12 acres is proposed to be rezoned from R-4, Low Density Residential to PR, Planned Residential “for a mixture of multi-level, multi-family buildings and multi-level townhome buildings with a maximum of 24 units or 48 bedrooms per acre,” according to the town’s website.
Two acres of public open space is also proposed.
Unmanageable mushrooming of traffic, aberrant scale, noise, the loss of public green-space, trees and the memory of the historic school were public concerns expressed during presentations of the planned, sleek Midtown.
Small business owners along Main Street, on the other hand, have voiced not just support, but relief, at the prospect of walk-in customers from the development of housing and hotels.
Main Street Pharmacy owner Jeremy Counts, a 2004 Blacksburg High School graduate, half a block from the property felt that the development, targeting young professionals to work and live there, would benefit downtown.
“I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “Young professionals want to live down here. We’ll have more houses and businesses. We need to keep business downtown. As a business owner, as well as a community member, it will benefit me.”
He and others noted an increase in foot traffic would also be boosted.
“There’s never going to be one plan that everyone’s going to love, let alone like,” Chris Belluzzo of South Main Chiropractic, whose Clay Court building he describes as “literally a stone’s throw away,” said.
Meeting schedules and the collection of application material including staff reports, staff comments, neighborhood meeting notes and sign-in sheets, pattern book, traffic study are housed here: www.blacksburg.gov/town-council/meetings/public-hearings/old-blacksburg-middle-school-rezoning.
The Blacksburg town website dedicated to the proposed project houses the schedule of public meetings, application materials and submitted public comments.
