Likes

1. Rural Character (fabric--Wild Turkeys); Diverse Wildlife
2. Terrain (up & down); Mountains
3. Rural w/ anything you like (culturally); Combination/Advantage of mixture of small town/ rural/ university cultures
4. Climate (shorter winters); Climate; 4 Seasons
5. Culture Shock
6. Backroads (bicycling); Country Roads/ Bikeways
7. Small Town Feel of Blacksburg (lots of interesting things)
8. Excellent Library
9. Fresh Air (no smog)/Clean Air; Relatively Good Air Quality
10. Diversity of Intelligent People
11. Open Vistas (see nothing but open territory) Nice View Sheds (no power lines); Vistas Without Houses; Uncluttered Ridgelines and Valleys
12. No Crime; Relatively Low Crime Rate
13. Community Participation/ Participation in Community (eg Ruritans); Government outreach & citizen participation
14. Quality of Life
15. Conservation/ Farm Land Preservation; Open Space
16. Inter-jurisdiction w/ Blacksburg & Christiansburg/ Mont. Co.; Chamber of Commerce
17. Diversity of Industry / Business/ Commerce
18. PSA--Inter-jurisdictional cooperation between Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Mont. Co.; Radford, Pulaski, VT, and Giles--Telecommunications Towers
19. Excellent Police Force (need raises)
20. Scenic Beauty/ Outdoors
21. Access to Outdoor Recreation (both on own --National Forest; sponsored through rec department; or through local facilities--Shooting Range)
22. Churches
23. Quality Schools (need more funding)
24. What’s left of the Agricultural Aspect
25. Ability to Leave Developed Area
26. Diverse Environment (wildlife, scenery, people)
27. Easy Access to Transportation hubs/ Near Airport
28. Good Health Care
29. Civility

Dislikes

1. Fifedomes ( various government groups--Tech/Blacksburg/County--not necessarily effectively cooperating or working together).
2. Transportation --Road Maintenance; Road Safety; Need Edging Strips
3. County Creates Plans they subsequently don’t stick to. (Last plan suggested Riner should stay agricultural)
4. Long way from agreement on what we do with our land.
5. Richmond neglects us and we have to play games--ex: Road repair only when it is an emergency.
6. Traffic Congestion (460 between Blacksburg and Christiansburg); Traffic (Congestion between B & C burgs.
7. Brush Mountain Estates (signature failure of planning--egregious example)
8. I-73 will be 3A mess (development will hamper establishment of setbacks)
9. Connectivity of the Roads (Bishop/Mossy Spring)
10. School Dropout Rate
11. Lack of Concern for Drinking Water/ Groundwater for/in Rural Areas
12. Loss of Businesses; Layoffs; Business Closings at Mall; Must Commute to Larger Cities
13. In Blacksburg, No Places to Buy BAsic Necessities (shoes, socks, etc)
14. Montgomery Regional Hospital--Poor Care/ Poor Quality of Service
15. No Open Space Plan in Comp Plan; One on Record--Not Adopted; Resurrect; How to Manage It
16. Lack of Cable Service/Gas (Infrastructure) Provisions
17. Power LInes/ Electricity--Provision on Edges of County.>
18. Increasing Growth; Overrun; Speed of Growth and the stress placed on infrastructure
19. Loss of Agricultural Lands
20. Road Conditions in Winter (inability to deal with snow)
21. Ease at which Zoning of Property can be changed...Too Easy...What is the use of having Zoning of the County doesn’t follow it.
22. Impact of growth/development on karst geology/ wells/ water and sewer; environment
23. Failure to meet the requirements of the Comprehensive plan; failure to require preliminary master development plans; Failure to follow master/comprehensive plans.
24. Lack of uniform plan across the county; definitions are not equally applied
25. Tax Structure--gives tax breaks to farmers, but does not give tax breaks to landowners attempting to preserve open space. No incentive to NOT develop. No break for non-farm open space.
26. Too much concentration fo retail services in mall area between B and Cburgs; Less economic and commercial development in Blacksburg
27. Jurisdictions (B/C/R/MC) do not work together as well as they might
28. Power outages; short power spurts

Issues

Open Space / Development

1. Development depends on who wants to sell out at any point
2. Value of land is set at its economic value only; There are other values.
3. 5 acre lots lead to loss of vistas and openspace.
4. Have not identified areas which need to be protected (open space) and those appropriate for development
5. Problem with leap frog development
6. Umbrella of zoning (ex. Fairfax Co MD)--encourage lousy roads
7. Find ways to preserve/protect open space

Solutions

Open Space / Development

1. Provide tax incentive/ tax relief for landowners preserving open space (similar to ag/forest district designation)
2. Provide incentives for people to keep open space/take away close to town as town moves out/ encourage people to develope slowly--no leapfrog development---remember services. Tax heavier/higher on land and lighter on buildings; land use tax helps land but not buildings.
3. Encourage Conservation Easements --and catalog people who can use them--make information available.
4. Develop Open Space Plan which protects agricultural and natural settings.

1. As area grew...lack of planning, esp. for services as growth occurred.
2. Services tend to be centered in the towns

1. More uniform dispersion of utilities
2. TDRs
3. Development Fees...charge developers for the actual cost of the development.
4. Charge developers up front for the cost of development (roads, schools, stormwater)
5. Water and Sewer to support smaller lots

Planning

1. Balancing of private/public control over land rights of individuals
2. Lack of Comprehensive Plan which the county is willing to follow.
3. Failure of county/towns to follow Comprehensive Plans.
4. Too easy to change the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning.
5. Need to re-examine zoning areas.
6. Need to plan for appropriate areas of development
7. Explanation of what a Comprehensive Plan is; where it applies, what does it effect/affect.

1. More cooperation between towns/city/ and Mont. Co.
2. Need to have a fully developed preliminary master plan for the county and to require fully developed preliminary master plans for all developments.
3. Need to treat comprehensive plan as controlling document. Take it seriously.
4. Make it more difficult to rezone.
5. Tie development to the provision of services

1. Lack of affordable housing for young families.
2. What is driving our need for more housing? low mortgage rates.
3. Why do we need big houses?

1. Determining what constitutes fairness in taxation
2. Value of land v. value of structure.

1. Tax breaks for/ to encourage open space similar to ag/forest districts.

1. Too many “come heres”. (Yankee v. Damn Yankee).
2. Should we shut down development department?

1. Need restrictions on height.

1. Not to exceed treeline (cf. Albe. Co)

1. Need to improve existing road conditions
2. Need to decrease congestion
3. Active Enforcement of existing traffic laws
4. Increase traffic safety
5. Increase Railroad safety
6. Cell phones

1. Paint white lines along edge of roads.
2. Increase/disperse convience stores throughout the communities (milk/bread/gas) in order to reduce traffic into towns/city for basic needs.
3. Placement of 30 mi speed limit zone on Mount Tabor Rd.
4. Re-examine 3-way stops.
5. Add guard rails along roads
6. Improve train crossings.
7. Make it illegal to talk on cell phones while in traffic.

1. Reexamine policies concerning floodplains
2. Flood levels change as development increases

Flood Plains

1. Have an update done by the Army Corp of Engineers to resurvey 100 year flood levels.

1. Need to study impact of development on Karst terrain
2. Need to regulate development in karst areas
3. Concern over impact on water quality of developments in karst areas.
4. Impact of runoff on and from karst.
5. Need for restrictions on development near sinkholes.
6. Wellhead protection--doesn’t address problems in karst areas.
7. Problems of stormwater runoff and groundwater polution.
8. Preservation of water table through restricted development

Water Quality/ Geology

1. Inclusion of geologic hazards rules (karst/sink holes/ mines/etc) for developers.
2. Require public water and sewer for areas with karst geology.
3. Clear identification of non-point source polution and additional controls
4. Wellhead protection
5. Monitor polution / point- source discharge.

1. More.
2. Increased #/ Expansion of Bike Trail/ Hiking Trail System in order to offer alternative transportation routes and reduce vehicular traffic.
3. Coordination of Bike Trail/ Hiking Trail system
4. Bike/car conflicts due to narrow bike lanes/
5. Inclusion of broader variety of outdoor recreation facilities (eg. Rifle Range)
6. Cheap Movie Theatres
7. Additional Swimming Facilites
8. County/Regional Performing Arts Center/ Facility which would allow for a permanent home for existing cultural organizations (theatre, chamber groups)

1. Expansion of Bike/Hiking Trails
2. Improve existing bike lanes through widening and providing a physical barrier between bike lane and roadway

1. Too much light in rural areas

1. Place restrictions on the candle power in rural areas.

1. Problems created by teacher retirement
2. Increased funding.
3. Although MC has good schools now, can make them better.
4. Recuritment
5. Not enough teachers.

1. More money won’t necessarily make the schools better.