Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll call to order the um December 10th meeting of the McGomery County Planning Commission. Mr. Lincolnis, Mr. Croll, here. Mr. Miller here. Miss Sharp Robinson here. Miss Simkins here. Mr. Waltz here, Mr. Workman here, Mr. Link is here, Vice Chair Foster here, Chair Rice here. Uh, and under the agenda, we're going to adjust the agenda and add election of 2026 officers for by the commission under new business. There's approval. Second.

We have a motion and second for approval of the agenda. All those in favor signify by saying I. I those opposed likewise have a public address portion if anyone would like to approach the commission and see none we will close the public address portion of the meeting and go into work session with a motion. So moved motion and second for work session. All those in favor signify by saying I.

Likewise. Motion carries. All right, good evening. It is it's been a while since I've been on this side of the day with you. So, thank you for having me this evening. As you have probably guessed from the reading that we provided to you before this meeting, we have been very busy in the planning department. Um, and we are glad to be sharing with you um the first parts of our draft comprehensive plan, McGomery Matters. I just wanted to run through a little bit of background with you just on our engagement and where we've been up until this point. Um, as you'll remember, we've been doing engagement efforts for McGomery Matters since June of last year. Uh, on September 9th, we completed our first round of village meetings. Uh, we were in the Plum, we were going to be in Plum Creek, but the weather wasn't cooperating, so we held our Plum Creek meeting here at the government center. Uh, but that finished our round one village level meetings. And then a few weeks ago on November 17th, we had our final countywide open house. That was the fourth of uh a series of events that we had to to work through the plan with the public. And we are currently in document preparation and review. We're reviewing parts one and two this evening. The board of supervisors will be looking at parts one and two in January. And then parts three and four we'll be reviewing with you in January and with the board in February. um part five, which is going to be our land use vision and our village plans. We're going to be working on that throughout the spring. Uh and our hope is to have all of our village plans adopted and our small area plans adopted uh at the end of the spring of 2026. So, I'll go through the individual parts. I will ask um if you have questions, we'll save those to the end and we can kind of capture everything at the end. Um, but I just kind of wanted to give you a brief overview and and for the public that may be watching this evening of how the plan is organized. So, part one of the plan is really the process that we've gone through and

actually how to use the document. So, chapter one introducing our process uh and going more into that in chapter two talking about government and administration. That's talking about regionalism, how we work with the two towns and other jurisdictions throughout the New River Valley. in chapter 3, uh the background for McGomery Matters, uh and other plans that were referenced and some of our data contained in chapter 4. Uh deeper dive into data in chapter 5, our community trends report. That's just a snippet of that larger state of the county report that we provided to you several months ago. Um and that lives on the McGomery Matters website. If you'll remember throughout the process, we really wanted to focus on making this a user-friendly document, which meant that it was a shorter document. So, a lot of that data and supporting information is contained within the appendices uh in the main document. And then matters of principle. These are those sort of those overarching themes that you're going to see throughout the entire document and it links all the chapters together. So, going into the the parts of the plan, how to use the plan. Again, we really wanted this document to be accessible to a very wide audience. Obviously, the board of supervisors and the commission will use the document most often in determining policy and planning decisions. Um, but we really wanted to make the document accessible to the general public. Um, and that can be challenging when you're looking at a planning document because we planners like to use jargon. We like to use acronyms. Um, the alphabet soup as we like to call it. Um, so we really wanted to make sure that we were putting this at a level that was easily understood by anyone who's viewing the document. We thought about this as anybody from uh a primary or secondary school student who's doing a research project and is looking at this document all the way up to policy makers uh who are going to be viewing the document for their

decision-m. So that's the reason that you may see it at a lower level uh than our previous comprehensive plan which we have heard from a number of citizens was very unuser friendly. And then we looked at a variety of different documents. Again, we've done a lot of work um over the past 20 years under our existing comprehensive plan. We've made some changes along the way. Um and we also have a number of partner organizations that are doing similar planning efforts. So something that we ensured that we were doing throughout this process was that we were reviewing all of these other documents and making sure that we were not duplicating efforts um but also making sure that we weren't offering any solutions that were contradictory to any of the other work that's going on. And so really looking at what worked well throughout the process, we provided multiple ways for people to participate. That was everything from community surveys to last summer being out in the community and talking to people at our public intercepts, our openhouse events, making sure that those events were um engaging for the public, that there were a variety of different activities for people to participate in. Working in the community in the way that we did helps us to build trust in the process and trust in the outcomes. And again, being very clear with the data to support the recommendations that are being made. And then throughout the process, we had several recurring themes. We heard a lot from the community about our natural environment and really protecting that rural landscape that people love so much in the county. And you see that reflected throughout the entire document. Transportation improvements. Again, as you'll remember, we did transportation matters a few years ago. Um, we are working at reformatting transportation matters and bringing that into McGomery Matters as a as a standalone chapter. Um, but we're also using this as an opportunity to go through that document and update. We've been very successful in achieving

funding for some of these projects so they can come off of our priority list, adding others that we've identified and again making sure that the plans are melding together uh in a uniform way. Something else we heard a lot from our citizens were addressing housing needs. So when we get to parts three and four, you're going to see more information about housing. Um but as you looked through the the data and the trends reports, you would have seen that that need for housing is not just an opinion in the community. It's actually data driven. We also heard a lot about expanding recreation opportunities in the county and you'll you see that as we go through part two. Renewable energy and sustainable growth. We've already done a significant amount of work here in the county regarding largescale solar. Um but something our citizens were saying to us is that they wanted us to look at other alternative technologies that are out there uh in terms of energy independence and sustainable growth and then building digital capacity. We've have a huge initiative going on in the county now to expand broadband access. Um but again really making sure that people can get the most up-to-date information in a way that is reliable. Um so that's something that we heard consistently as well. So again, we highlight some quick facts. U just wanted to share these with you. Again, the median age for the county is 28.4. That's relatively young compared to the rest of Virginia. And then the national median uh median household income 72,000. Again, we're we're lagging behind the state as a whole and lagging behind that national average as well. Uh and then our growth rate is actually higher than both the state and the national growth rate. So again, we're seeing that development pressure as more people choose to make McGomery County their home. So again, from the very beginning, it was it was really important to us uh that we had an overall vision statement

for the county. Um and the statement that you have in front of you is the result of all of those open houses, the steering committee, stakeholder discussions. Um really trying to bring in some of those common themes that we heard. Um, so McGomery County is a vibrant and resilient community where forwardthinking collaboration and innovation empower all residents to thrive. Resiliency is something that we heard consistently not only from natural disasters, but changes in the economy and other changes that we may be seeing that maybe aren't a result of what's happening here in the county, but we have to react to those. Collaboration was another issue that we heard over and over again. and through our stakeholder engagement and our steering committee, we've worked with other organizations that are doing very important work in the county. And that spirit of working together uh is something that our citizens repeated to us. Uh and then innovation and empowerment um are also concepts that we heard repeatedly throughout the process. Uh people want us to be able to provide the resources and the tools that they need to be successful in their individual lives and then our collective lives as citizens of the county. So again, these crosscutting themes we're calling our core matters. These are principles uh that we want in all of our programming, all of our recommendations, and all of the work that we're doing. So we want to be intentional, we want everything to be accessible, we want to be collaborative, and we want to be resilient. So talking about future growth, and again, we'll get into this more when we get into part five of our review. Um, but in the executive summary that's contained in part one, we start to talk about these concepts. Um, so one of the big deliverables that comes out of this process is our new future land use map and where we want to see growth happen throughout the county. Um, and our citizens had some very strong opinions about where they wanted to see growth over the next 20 years. Again, this

factored in our countywide meetings, but also our village level meetings. Um, and two areas that we we see received a lot of feedback where people wanted to see more growth, uh, were in what we refer to as the midcount area between the two towns. Uh, and then the 177 corridor outside the city of Radford. Um, we do have existing infrastructure in those areas. We have existing transportation networks that would support growth. Um, but we know that there are land use determinations. We know there's additional infrastructure that may be needed to sustain growth in those areas. Um and so we really were responsive to that overwhelming message that we received from the community. Um and so the recommendation going forward will be to focus growth in the two towns primarily first and then two growth areas which are new for us in this new comprehensive plan. The midcount area being referred to as the Marramac growth area and then the 177 corridor area being referred to as the Bethl growth area. We wanted to uh identify historic community names as we were looking at these growth areas and as we go through the development of small area plans. We wanted those to be on those same levels as villages where they have a unique identity and we can look at land use policies for those specific areas to foster that kind of growth. In the draft McGomery Matters plan, we will be reducing the number of communities that are considered villages. And that's based on the public feedback that we received in those communities. Um, and the fact that in some of our villages, that feeling of community identity was not as strongly resonated as it was in others. And so, uh, as a next tier of development, the villages of Ellison, Lefayet, Prices Fork, Reiner, and Shawville, uh, will be the next area that would capture growth. However, something that we heard from the citizens and something that will be reflected in those small area planning

documents is a real focus on redevelopment. Um, and when we started having conversations with citizens about growth, we started to think about new ways that those uh those villages could grow. So, redevelopment of existing buildings and properties, infill development doesn't necessarily have to be new construction. um and really constraining that growth and doing it in a smart way within the village areas. And then the next tier of development is the idea of rural villages and this is where our villages of Belleview and Plum Creek have sort of shaken out throughout the process. We don't want to completely ignore those communities because they do have existing public infrastructure. So they can sustain some growth. Um but the the feedback that we got from members of the community was that they really wanted to see that growth really targeted and limited. Um these two areas will not receive small area plans. Um and their growth will be really shaped by what's happening around them as we go forward. So here's that tiered land use approach as I was kind of going through with you really identifying the areas that already had infrastructure and transportation networks to support that growth. As you'll remember in our existing comprehensive plan 80% of all growth was to be directed toward the towns and the villages. Um we still want to see the majority of development in the county happening within the two towns for a variety of reasons. Um again we can have more dense development within the towns. We have a transportation network that would support that growth in development. Uh and the infrastructure exists within the two towns. Then again the two growth areas that we've identified then the villages then the rural villages. We also had the concept that emerged of this idea of settlement communities. In our existing comprehensive plan we refer to these as rural communities. These are

smaller areas of the county that historically have a community identity places like Pilot and McCoy. We wanted to make sure that those were identified throughout the plan. And then something that we heard, as I mentioned a lot from citizens was really wrapping our heads around defining what rural is. And that's one of those we call them fuzzy words that it's hard to really define what rural is from one person to the next. Um but what came throughout the process was this concept that with folks wanted to preserve those farm areas. They wanted to preserve viewsheds. Um they wanted to preserve those open fields that that people love about McGomery County. So really defining those areas for farm preservation and then the outdoors and natural areas as well. Um sort of looking at how we're going to approach land use. Again, a little bit more information about the the different categories there. And then we really wanted to focus in on how the actions are going to really matter in executing the goals that have been identified. So uh thematically throughout the document you're going to see that we establish a goal, then we talk about strategies, and then we talk about specific actions that will help us to achieve those strategies and goals. We have um three identified prime transformations. These are things that the county can focus on in the next 5 to 10 years to really start to move the needle on some of these goals that have been identified. And then within each part, we have priority actions and then vision lists uh following each chapter um to talk about that 10 to 20 year inaction of the plan. So those three prime transformations that I mentioned, these are really uh going to be the items that are going to have the most impact in executing the the goals and objectives that we've identified in McGomery Matters. Um a comprehensive zoning rewrite. This is

already in process. We have an RFP ready to go out at the after the beginning of the year. Um we're going to be securing a firm to do a an update of our zoning ordinance, which as a reminder has not been updated since 1999. um it's not very user friendly for us and it's not very user friendly for the citizens. Um so that's going to be priority one after we adopt the comp plan. We also are simultaneously working on a parks and recreation master plan. This is going to be looking at all of our park facilities throughout the county uh and giving the parks and recreation department a comprehensive list of items to work on in the next 5 to 10 years. Um the same firm that we've been working with on McGomery Matters is doing that parks plan update. So there's going to be some good continuity there. And again, this is really reflective of what we heard from the citizens that recreation and outdoors were their highest priorities as we go forward. And then another strategy that is going to require a lot of planning and effort on behalf of the county that the citizens really were adamant about was a countywide interconnected trail network. If you'll remember when we were doing village planning in the last comprehensive plan, we had a connectivity plan for each village um not only talking about transportation connectivity but pedestrian and bicycle connectivity. So that really continues that effort uh from our last comprehensive plan but really focuses in a new way of connecting our existing trail networks and building new trail networks to connect those. And that's obviously going to take some time because that would require potential easement acquisition or acquisition of land throughout the county. And we'll dive into that a little bit more with the parks master plan. But again, that's one of those prime transformations that we're talking about. So getting into part two, um the outdoors and culture matters section. This contains three chapters. Our environmental resources chapter, our cultural and historic preservation

chapter, and our recreation chapter. And each chapter is organized with an introduction um Montgomery's voice which is really trying to synthesize down what we heard from the citizens uh with a vision statement for each of the chapters. Uh a SWAT analysis that's our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats uh in those areas. Then identifying the goals and then some data snapshots that support the goals as they were drafted. So that'll be the same organizational scheme that we'll have throughout the document and all in all the other parts that are coming. So just some general themes with natural resources that came up throughout the process. Uh the idea of uh mitigating natural hazards, being good stewards of our natural resources, stream water, stream, river and water quality, uh how we manage and build within floodplane areas, car soils, um high-risk environmental features, sensitive species, for example, um and then this idea of of a green footprint and reducing our carbon footprint and protecting air quality. So those are themes that we heard um through all of our levels of engagement through working with our citizens, working with our stakeholder groups and our steering committee. So needs that need to be addressed with McGomery County environment, the loss of native native habitat to new development and other human activity, impaired waterways. This is using data from the EPA. And then continued loss of local farmland due to farmer retirement and development pressures. So, getting into the goals in our environmental section, and you'll forgive me, my eyes are starting to get old, so I'm going to have to look at my paper copy. Um, but goal number one, you can see again, we have a description for each goal and then we go into

strategies. So, for goal one, this deals with natural resource stewardship. Uh and really the the goals here are to preserve, conserve, and manage our natural resources and rural qualities as a sustainable asset to benefit county residents and future generations. And then we go into listing out specific strategies uh that we will utilize to achieve that goal. Um we talk a little bit about the background as to what led us to create that goal. And then I think another really useful tool that's going to come out of this process for us is we have various metrics that we can look at um with you and with the board of supervisors to see if we're achieving this goal. So these are the very measurable things that we can look at to say yes we're making progress or no we're not making progress. The other thing that when we going through the document again that idea of collaboration and partnership you can see for each goal we list the partners that we're going to work with to achieve the goal. And I think again that is weaving that theme throughout the entire document is going to be really helpful for us to identify uh where the county's responsibility begins and ends and where our partners' responsibility begins. Our next goal relates to streams, rivers and water quality. Maintain, protect and enhance the quality of our waterways uh to ensure human health, habitat vitality and safe recreational opportunities. again listing the strategies and the metrics there and again identifying all of our partners. And then goal C is our natural hazards goal. Again, create a more resilient McGomery County, mitigating natural hazard events and quickly responding when they occur. Um, a lot of this work has been done through the hazard mitigation plan that the county has been involved with with the regional commission. um that really informed a lot of this section. Um but we obviously were going through public engagement when we had experienced

Hurricane Helen and some of the fires in uh our more rural areas of the county. So I think these issues were top of mind for members of the community. We're also working with emergency services to ensure that we have the right staffing to be able to respond to these events as well. Moving on to history and culture. some general themes that we received there. Uh historic preservation came up quite a bit uh throughout the process. Uh preserving our historical and cultural integrity of individual structures and districts. Um we talked a lot with citizens that wanted to see some sort of effort on the county to preserve our history, but also being quite aware that any local authority over another individual's property would mostly be frowned upon in a lot of areas of the community. So really figuring out a strategy for how do we preserve that culture but also respect the land rights of property owners. Viewsheds was was something that we heard quite a bit. Uh cultural facilities and fine arts. Again we had representatives on our steering committee and our stakeholder groups from all of our institutions in the area. Uh and then again just continued collaboration through joint efforts in the valley. So needs to be addressed for history and culture. there's a lack of awareness of the resources that we have. Um, internet access uh was something that was was mentioned as a barrier for experiencing history and culture. Limited and uncertain funding sources. Uh, we heard this a lot from our partners. Uh, they're competing for the same dollars. Um, we have some very generous uh and philanthropic people here in the county. Um, but those dollars can only go so far. So looking at ways that organizations can partner together or be better stewards of the funding that they are receiving. Uh and then again organizations that are working in silos really trying to break them out of that

and encourage them to work collaboratively uh for historic and cultural preservation here in the county. So we had two goals that emerged uh in history and culture. Goal A, preserve the historical and cultural identity of individual structures and districts. incorporate accessible educational elements into preservation efforts. Um, something that we heard here was we need a resource or a repository of what all of our historic sites and our historic resources are. We've actually already begun work on that here uh with the partner uh for the North Fork Historic District. So, we're working on an ArcGIS story map to map the resources within that district. So, those efforts are already ongoing. We have some metrics there looking at the condition of historic resources, looking at federal and state historic designations and historic markers. So, we'll really be looking for uh partnerships with the Department of Historic Resources, the McGomery Museum uh and others that are doing this sort of work in our community. And then goal B really focuses in on the fine arts and those cultural facilities, increase access to and support for local cultural facilities, educational resources, and similar opportunities. And again, we have some goals that are outlined there with some metrics. And then in recreation, we talk about themes of regional access. really uh something that came out pretty resoundingly throughout this process was whether you live in Blackburg, Christiansburg or McGomery County, you want access to recreational opportunities and you don't care who's providing it to you. You just want the the service there. Um so we we found a lot of conversation around duplication of services between the three different departments that are offering these opportunities in the county and ways that we could work together. Um, again, regional C collaboration. We have a lot of really great natural resources around

us, a lot of great hiking trails, a lot of uh access to the Appalachin Trail around us. So, really working with other partners throughout the region to promote those resources. Uh, we talked about this not only as connecting to our history and our natural landscape, but also as a strategy to promote tourism here in the area. looking at our recreational programs, uh those environmental and cultural resources, really looking at um how we can preserve history and culture but also integrate a recreational aspect with those preservation strategies. Um and then a kind of a crosscutting theme that we saw throughout the entire process was this idea of community health. Um healthy living through active living here in the community and recreation being a vehicle for that. So, recreation access uh or recreation projects that need to be addressed, resources and staffing to maintain facilities and programs, more consistency between trails, and again that goes back to that larger master plan for trail network connectivity in the county. Um, we heard a lot about indoor space needs for equipment and programs. Both the towns have recreation centers, but we don't have an indoor recreation center here in the county. And that's something we heard from a number of our citizens. um particularly senior programming as our segment of our population continues to age in place. Um having programming and opportunities for them. Um our sports leagues are very popular. We heard that from a number of members of the community. So having space to host more leagues. Um there was some conversation as well about you know young adult leagues as well because that's really a missing segment of our programming. Again, I mentioned having three separate park systems operating within the county can be confusing for folks. They don't know which jurisdiction they need to go to to sign up for T-ball or which facility that they can use by right as a citizen of

the two towns or as a county resident. And then uh another issue that was brought up uh several places throughout the process was the desire to have a river park and have access to the new river here in the county u through a park that's maintained by parks and recreation. So we had three goals that came out of uh our strategies and goals here. Uh community health, foster community health through active living and some strategies that were identified there. Um, and then some metrics that we can look at as well as some partner organizations. Goal B, recreational access, encouraging access to existing and future parks, trails, and facilities for all county residents, including those who live in the two towns. And then goal C, environmental and cultural resources. Incorporate natural and cultural resource protection and education into recreational programs, facility planning, and maintenance. So we went through this process uh we identified these goals and these objectives. We took those back to the community. Um and then understanding that we have a limited number of resources, we asked uh residents at our last open house um to help us sort of rank and prioritize where the county should be investing its its money. So we did the budgeting exercise. I know Bri shared this with you last time. Um, we put this out in the lobby for the past two weeks. It happened to work out that people were also coming in to pay their taxes. So, it was a great opportunity to ask them about how they wanted their tax money to be spent. Um, so we had a a large number of responses. We were very happy here. Um, education overwhelmingly uh received the most Montgomery bucks for where people wanted to see us invest our resources. Uh, next was public safety and welfare. And then following that uh briefly behind there is environmental resources. Um there were some that scored a little lower than we

would have liked to have seen of course, but again when you're looking at limited resources, you do have to start prioritizing. Um one thing I will say is I think this really reflects the priorities of the board of supervisors. I think we're in touch with what our citizens are are looking at in terms of how we're spending money and resources and allocating staff resources. Um but again this was just a great activity and I wanted to share those results with you uh where we were in the process. So that is all I have for you. Um I will say that I think for for staff if you have comments um grammar punctuation um minor edits if you could send those to us we can make sure we integrate that into a master feedback document uh to provide back to the consulting team to make those edits. Uh, in terms of any larger questions or themes, we'll be glad to discuss those with you this evening. And, uh, if I can't answer a question, I've got Bri here to help me as well. So,

I have a question. I'm still on. Okay, there you go. Uh, great presentation. I enjoyed the information. I was curious about the age. So we are 10 years younger than the state. Now I'm assuming that is because of colleges that might live near us. Okay. So it's it's the student population, but it's also those who are choosing to stay after graduating. And we have a a pretty good section of our population that are those young professionals, okay? Maybe in their first position, people who are coming to take faculty or staff roles at the university. Those tend to skew younger as well.

Okay. Because I was curious what the age would be if you took out the student population. Do we have any idea? Because one of the things that you need is senior care, senior, you know, senior activities. So, it's curious. It's all young people, but we need to build. Do you see what I the group, right? Yeah. I know. So, if you go back to the state of the county report, we do break those cohorts down a little bit more. and I can pull some of that data and send it to you if you'd like to see. So there is a there is a focus on senior programming aging in place as well. Um the the challenge and and this is something that we hear from citizens a lot is how do we plan for the students

but not let everything be dependent on the student population. um and they are utilizing our services obviously um but they also are through rent payments through car taxes they are contributing to our economy so we want to make sure that we include their voice as well in the process I would wonder if in a future study if we would ask how long have you lived in Montgomery County less than five years because college is typically a six-year gig these days for people um so six years or less maybe and then then you would get the professionals, right? If it's the six to 10, you'd be capturing the young professionals potentially or the olders. I just wonder if that would help sift out

um some of the needs maybe. And I will say from looking at participation, the largest segment of students responded to the that initial survey back last summer. Um in terms of our openhouse events that's been we weren't getting any folks in their 20s. uh we were maybe getting some mid20s late 20s individuals that were participating um but I am fairly confident in saying that the results are not skewed by students um because they didn't participate in a very large number throughout the entire process. Okay, thank you.

I I have one comment just um so the two villages that will now be um designated rural villages Plum Creek and Belleview. Yes. Are there any disadvantages to them for not remaining a village?

So, they will still be identified as urban development areas um for funding, transportation options, um grant funding and programs. Um if we were to pursue anything in terms of housing, that's looked at at the census tract level. So, a designation as a rural village would not limit them from any funding that would be available there. Um what we found throughout the process is that we just weren't really getting feedback from the residents of those communities. Um the attendance at the open houses were very low. The response rates on individual surveys to them were very low. And the folks that we were speaking to really said, I don't feel like I live in a village. I feel like I just I live on this road. I live in this community, but I don't feel that sense of community identity. Unlike the four villages that kind of emerged, that sense of community identity was really strong there and they really wanted to be considered a village because they felt like they had a unified voice.

I mean, I live in the Plum Creek area, so I feel that all the time. I don't know a lot of my neighbors, and I've lived there 28 years. So, I just wanted to ask that question because I I knew that you talked about the reason why you did that, but I didn't know if there were any disadvantages that

And the thing that I'll say also some of the issues that were identified, I'm going to speak specifically about Plum Creek. Um, a large amount of that village is within the flood plane. Um, a lot of what we heard from the residents that did respond to surveys or did come to the open house was they really wanted to see redevelopment happen within Plum Creek that it felt primarily industrial and they really wanted to see some different um resources come to their community. So those larger countywide objectives will still be able to be applied in Plum Creek and the way that we do land use planning, the way that we respond to flood plane issues, erosion and sediment control issues. That'll be the same approach we'll take countywide. It's just not going to be contained in a specific plan for Palm Creek.

Is that a trend uh for your profession is to look at these distinct distinctions like villages and now rural villages. Is that something that you came up with that?

No. So our our existing comprehensive plan was really the first time we identified villages as growth areas. Um it's it's a result in the previous comprehensive plan. it was a result of where the infrastructure investments had been made. Um, and we'll continue that going forward. Again, the the infrastructure network already exists in Plum Creek. There's potential in the future to expand those networks. Um, but again, having a a specific plan that reflects that community identity that may be drastically different from another part of the county, that that need didn't really arise from what we heard from the citizens. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. you are not.

Now, um I've watched and occasionally slept through a number of presentations and um yours is among the top 1% that I didn't sleep through. So, I I thank you for a very professional presentation. Thank you. Your check is under your keyboard there for saying that, by the way. Uh would you return if you could to the uh map of future use that was early on uh when we talked about the Beth the uh Bethl community? Yes, thank you.

Yes,

we've identified that obviously with a with a a big colored swatch there. It's not traditionally one of our communities. Um, it does have the infrastructure, but it doesn't have a school. It doesn't have um a u graange. Uh, it really has nothing that says Bethl except it's it's pretty much slated for growth. My question to you is uh a lot of the land surrounding that appears in white more than anywhere else on the map. Is there a way in the future that we could do an overlay that would show um a forestal districts and or conservation easements many of which lie in that area and certainly affect the the future growth of that area. Absolutely. I don't want to see Bethl become a large village that can't expand because somebody in Dry Valley doesn't want it to expand.

And I will say so with the with the growth areas and with the village, we we have not yet determined what the boundaries of those areas are going to be. Um we as we go through the the rest of the village visioning process, we do expect some small changes with the village boundaries, but I don't think we're going to be seeing anything dramatic with the villages with the growth areas because those are centered along pretty major transportation corridors. So in midount along 460 business uh and then the 177 corridor there for Bethl. We don't imagine that those boundaries are going to extend far beyond those transportation hubs. Um, and in terms of community identity, there doesn't really seem to be one in Bethl or Marramac right now. But I believe if those are the focus areas for growth and development as we start to see businesses and residences start to grow out in those areas, I think what we're going to start seeing is a a community identity that's going to form. Um, and then I think as we start seeing growth, we're going to see the need for additional resources to be placed in those growth areas. I don't know that that will be a school, but it may be a community center, another park. It could be another community gathering place as the population starts to move into that area.

And and I will note too, both of those areas are identified in our current comprehensive plan as urban expansion areas. So, they're identified as growth areas. Now, um we just simply wanted to to stick with a theme, so to speak, um and give them their own designation as a growth area and then give them an identity. Um because the one thing we did learn through our citizens, these were the two growth areas our citizens said, this is where we we need to be growing. Um so they will get small area plans um out of the next round when we do village plans. And of course in the case of the Bethl community, we also have to consider that that's a shared revenue. Um basically all of Tyler Avenue is shared revenue with Radford City. So

correct. And because of their proximity with with Marramac because of its proximity to Blackburg and Christiansburg and then Bethl's proximity to the city of Radford, we do foresee the land use policies in those growth areas potentially allowing a greater density that you're going to see in other parts of the county and particularly higher than what you would see in the villages. Um and that is um not only for encouraging growth there but also to be compatible with the growth that we're seeing as Blackburg continues to grow out South Main Street. Um this idea that you wouldn't see a huge visual shift between Blackburg Marramac and then Christensburg. And then the similarly um as we continue to see the exit 109 exit continue to grow we have approved resonings there for some very dense residential and commercial development across from the hospital. We also have land that uh when you look at resource value is really underutilized in terms of commercial and residential development. Um, so we'll have to be very careful as we go forward with the zoning ordinance as to what those allowed densities are so that we don't shift too far in a direction that the citizens are not are going to say this doesn't feel like McGomery County.

Justin was Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, we also, I think, need to look at future future growth that our grandchildren may see. you know, uh, except for the new river, there's not a lot of distance between McCoy and Parrot and there's a lot of open land and somewhere in there, we need to look beyond our boundaries at what may happen because it's not far from Blackburg. Justin, was um, with these growth areas when we're talking about Mary Mack and Bethl, were were they was it citizens input? citizens from Marry Mack and Bethl said, "We'd like growth to be here," or was it people in other areas saying, "We want growth to be over there."

So, it was both. Um, and you'll remember we we traveled around with that dot map um with the blue and the yellow dots to all of our villages. Um, and then with all of our countywide meetings, there was no blue to be found between the two towns. It was all yellow. Um, that's where folks really wanted to see that growth and development. And we got the same thing down with Bethl. Um, and I think it was a mixture. I think it was people that exist that that live currently in those areas of the county, but also people that live in the villages that wanted to see that growth diverted away from them, which is what the plan has been in our current comprehensive plan into areas that the citizens believed had the infrastructure and the transportation to support. And through our analysis, we we believe that those are the two areas that will accommodate growth the best.

Yeah. I I think it's safe to say that everyone in each village, they all agreed with each other that the development needed to go between the two towns and in the Bethl area. So, I think that's the one thing. Now, we did have several people from Riner say, "Oh, the growth should be in Ellison or Prices Fork. We don't want it in Riner." And we had people in Price's Fork saying, "We don't want it here. It should be in Riner or Shawsville or so." We had that. But the thing that they all agreed on was that it should definitely be in Midtown and Bethl. Um there was very little this should not be a growth area. Um none in Mid County.

Yeah. It seemed like it's real desirable to be in Riner. People want to move to Riner and and and the 114 area. Um, and so it seems like that's where people want to be moving to or build houses, but I noticed that we didn't add those as growth areas. So that kind of

So the the villages will still still receive growth. It's just going to be a different kind of growth. And the consensus that we were hearing in a number of the villages is we want our village to be where we live. We have a small corner store. We have small locallyowned businesses, but if I need something major, I'm going to town. So, put all of that stuff in town or adjacent to the town and I'm going to go to that. Um, that was what we heard in in every village that they just didn't want to see a lot of commercial growth at all. Um, and then when they did want to see growth, it was redevelopment, infill, smallcale development. So that density, that housing that we need to be able to to reach the targets that we're going to need for the population, housing that's going to be at different levels, that's going to be able to accommodate different income levels and allow people to move up through the market. They want that density in Marramac and Bethl, particularly the folks in Prices Fork who have received the most housing over the last 20 years of any village. And you don't see much desire for that uh among Shawville, Elliston, Lefay folks because there's always been a natural connection with Glennford and Salem for those the the mountain has been a barrier. The the other the other factor that goes into this process is when we did that map available mapping available land mapping exercise when we take out areas that are contained within flood plane that are prime agricultural soils that are within the villages there's just not available land to grow in the villages and when you look at Marramac and Bethl all of the conditions for development are favorable there and it would again allow us to get that density and be able to grow those areas whereas as growth in a number of our existing villages again has to be that redevelopment because

there's simply no available land for new growth and development there. So, and I may be wrong, but just going back to resoning requests that we have, wasn't there like urban expansion like on the outside of the town limits? I'm thinking of like Clay Street and Prices Fork as well. So, is that kind of going away? It will. So, that's something else that we heard, particularly east of Blackburg, um, we got a lot of blue dots saying, "No more growth here, please."

Um, the other the other infrastructure piece that we have to look at outside of the town of Blackburg is when we wrote our last comprehensive plan and those urban expansion areas were identified, we were still allowed to connect to the Blackburg water system. We have reached our limits in Blackburg will do no other connections to their system unless you go into the town limits. Gotcha. So it prevents us as a county really of focusing growth outside of Blackburg because the infrastructure is not there to support it.

Um so that's where you see that eastern growth area outside of Blackburg go away. Um with Christiansburg um we do along the Pepper Ferry corridor. We have seen some folks say that they would like to see some more growth there. Our limits there are really the transportation system through 114. You know, folks want to see that go to four lanes. They want to see other improvements there. Um while we have identified some strategies, fourlaning through is going to be outside of my generation happening. Sure. Um so any dense development along that corridor, we're limited by the transportation infrastructure there.

Okay. Thank you. I I I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Uh to the water slide and the metrics and who we and what we do for protecting the New River. Yes. Uh for those of us that live near the New River, we're very concerned about there's a big BE BAE systems Radford Arsenal. Who watches them for metrics? I'm just curious. So where they are a federal entity um we have no regulatory authority.

Um they work with the state and federal regulators. Their metrics are provided to DEQ and then the EPA. Okay. Um so we're very careful to only make policies on the things that we can control. I understand. And so we're looking at other source non-source pollutants that we can prevent from going into the system. um erosion and sediment control measures to keep any disturbance on the site or retained through storm water retention on site. Those are policies that we can look at to to assist with that. Um we we know that we have

not only the arsenal but we have the university which is obviously a huge user of resources but also a a huge producer. Um the university has a plan to start moving away from their coal fire power plant and look at other renewables. Um, unfortunately, even though we attempted to engage them, the Arsenal was was not engaged in our process. Okay. I didn't figure, but I thought I'd ask. Okay. Thanks.

Any other comments? again. So, any uh typographical, grammar, spelling, punctuation, edits that you would like to get over to us, I would just ask that you would get that to us uh prior to the Christmas holiday so that we can integrate that feedback. Um we'll be work sessioning these two parts with the board of supervisors uh at their second meeting in January is the plan. Um so, making sure that we've got all your feedback integrated. Um, and then in January, you're going to be seeing our community development part, which is including housing, economic development, and transportation. Um, and then you'll be seeing your health and services matters part as well. Um, that's our public safety and welfare, health and human services, education, and I'm missing one chapter, public infrastructure. You'll be we'll be looking at all of that with you in January. But thank you all for your attention and if you have any questions after the meeting, I'll be around.

Thanks. Thanks, Justin. Thanks, sir. I'll entertain a motion to leave session. Motion and second. All those in favor signify by saying I

I likewise. Uh then we don't have any old business but under new business we have the election of the 2026 officers and u we have a slate that's been put forth by our nominated committee. The nominating committee consisted of Pam and Bob. Thank you. And so the slate put forth is uh Mr. Foster for chair uh Mr. Lancis for vice chair and Miss Sharp Robus for secretary. If uh I see no other nomination being put forth. So by acclamation or should we have a vote? Have a vote. Okay. All those in favor of the slate put forth by the nominated committee. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed likewise and the slate is elected and thank you for your service. And then we move into liaison reports. So first up is uh Anthony with the board of supervisors.

Good evening commissioners. I I wore this to the uh the county employee lunchon this afternoon and and I told him he had to wear it

told me it would be a good idea. So um well good evening. So um one quick update for you all. Um on this Monday evening, December 15th, from 5 to 7:30, we will be hosting a reception um honoring county supervisor Sarah Bone. Um rec in recognition of her service to the county. As you know, she didn't run for reelection. And so this will be her last meeting um and her term will end on December 31st, but looking forward to welcoming Goon and Kieran to the board of supervisors to represent district A beginning in January. Um, and then this is more just kind of a personal note to to share with you all. Um, and so I said this is more of a personal opinion, but you know, as you know, the board of supervisors recently took up the vote on the SUP for the Black Diamond infill project. Um, and I know we didn't, while we took your recommendation into consideration, we ultimately ended up not voting that way. Um, I remember being here the night of their presentation. I remember the ensuing discussion, you know, uh, among you all. Um, I appreciated all the questions, the concerns that were raised, um, all the consideration that was taken on your behalf for that project. And I think that if nothing else, moving that project forward to the board of supervisors then really engaged the community and brought more people. And so that brought out more information and things like that. And so ultimately, you know, it was the community's input, at least for me personally, that ultimately informed my position on that request. So I just want to uh thank you all and and make sure that you know that you still have my full, you know, support and respect. And just because we don't vote with you doesn't mean that we

don't appreciate um everything that you do and and how you uh present those projects to us. So, thank you. Um and really that's that's all I've got other than thank you all and on behalf of the board of supervisors, we wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. All right, any questions or anything? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. uh Blackburg Planning Commission.

So, this month they didn't have anything, but for November, I just wanted to let you guys know that they did approve, and you guys know this, 836bedroom units, apartments, six stories high on University Boulevard. in case you hadn't already read that or heard that. Sorry I didn't get to watch the video last time in time for our last meeting, but I did want to report that out. And there was obvious it was a long two and a half hour meeting, big discussion. Uh it'll be mixed use, but it's approved. Um for those living in Blackburg, is that it is next to the McBride neighborhood. Um yes,

the fuel stations, the fuel pumps of Kroger. Yes. Back there. They voted. Oh, well then, but the planning council, right, council got it last night then and I hadn't heard that, but planning commission voted yes. So, case in point. There you go. We work together. Thanks.

Uh, Chrisberg Plan Commission, Trey, you have anything on that? Um, seemed like it was a reasonzoning that the town council had voted on and did not produce a um an answer. They put forth a motion, but the motion died. So, I think they're going to try to re revote at the next meeting. Uh, Radford Planning Commission with Miss Simpsons. They meet on Monday. So, I'll know more after that. Okay. And tourism council, Mr. Miller. Okay. And uh parks and recreation, Mr. Workman, we won't meet again until February and we didn't meet in November, so no report.

And then planning director's report, Miss Hopkins.

So I just have a couple of things. Um we have hired two GIS interns to do some work. Um we are launching a new software, the first of the year called Open Gov. We are very excited and a little overwhelmed right now because the time is approaching very quickly. We just started this endeavor the end of August. So it has been very fastm moving. Um it's given us all the opportunity to look at processes and make some changes. Um but it is ultimately going to be wonderful especially for our citizens. We're very excited to unveil that to them. it's going to make their process much much smoother um to obtain permits, keep up with applications and plans and things like that that they submit. Um so those interns were hired actually to help with the other piece of the software which for the first time ever will be an asset management piece for the county. Um so the county will be able to log all everything they have basically. So if it's an HVAC unit, this is where it's at. This is how many repairs we've done to it. this is how much it cost. Um, so then they'll be able to track that to see if it's reoccurring problems. Um, if maybe we need to look at replacing the equipment, things like that. Be able to track warranties. Um, so our GIS interns will be assisting our GIS staff in going out and locating all of these assets and items. Um, and that will not only be for our general services department that does building maintenance and things like that, but it's also for our utilities department. So, we'll be locating manholes, hydrants, lines, um, all of that fun stuff so they can keep track of that. So, our interns will be very busy as will our GIS staff as they work on launching that system. So, that's that's exciting as well. Um,

Montgomery Matters, a couple of updates. Justin gave us a very professional presentation. It was wonderful. Um, just to let you know some other work that we have going on behind the scenes. The survey is still open. Um, so if you haven't taken it, if you know someone that hasn't taken it, send them to montgomery matters.com um to take that survey. It's going to be open through the end of the year. We have also obtained some of the little square paper coasters um that we are trying to get out into restaurants um to use them and that'll have a QR code that people can go to the website and get to the survey but also get information about Montgomery Matters. Um that was an idea that our consultant come up with and um it was brilliant. I wish we had discovered it at the very beginning of this process, but we have not had a great positive result from the restaurants that we have contacted so far. Um, we're thinking maybe we need to go visit them so they can actually see what we're trying to do. Um, so that's that's kind of on our radar in the next week or so. If you know of a restaurant or location like that that could use coasters, let us know. if you have connections and you would like some coasters to get them out, we can get those to you. So, we have quite a few. Um, just let us know. And then the January meeting, I am going to put this out to you all and get your opinion. Um, there are several things that we have going on in January. So, I want to get the feeling for one or two meetings. Um we will have the other comp plan work session that needs to be done in January and that will go over the last three sections of the comp plan. Um we also need to look at your work program for the upcoming year. You will have one public hearing and then on top of that we are going to do a work session to introduce you to the new land

development software so you can see what our new processes are. So, do you think you can handle and do you want to handle all of that in one meeting? That would be on January the 14th. Or do you want to break them apart and have your maybe your public hearing and work program on the 14th and then your work sessions on the 21st? I will leave that to you. What's the um the public hearing will be for a contractor storage yard on Flanigan. you've already approved one there and they're requesting a second one for the property in front of it. Um Shaw apparently sold the one that they received approval for and now they want one for themselves in the other building on the other parcel.

Always nice, but I would prefer we don't go from 7 to 11 or something like that. It's not a neighborhood in the middle of a village. It It's not um I I don't foresee it being an intense public hearing. Okay. So, good with one. Okay. So, that will be January the 14th and that's all I have other than Merry Christmas to you all from us in the planning staff. We appreciate all you do. Yes. Mr. What's the company that is doing the U facilities application you're buying?

Um, it's open gov. Open gov. Open gov. So it's an extension of another module on the other. Correct. Correct. We purchased it as an enterprise which brought us some benefits. Um, so for we got the land development side plus we got asset and facilities management. Okay. Anything else? Okay, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Um, I'll take it on myself for this to embrace this unholy mob and thank you very much for your service the last couple years. Well, been a pleasure to work with you.

I've enjoyed I've enjoyed it and uh look look forward to uh watching you for a couple years. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion and second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Merry Christmas. Mr.