There's this developer, see, and his latest plans for another phase of a residential housing project was turned down. A couple of weeks later, another development in the same area is due to come up for rezoning. And more are in the queue, ready to move forward.
With rezoning denied due to safety concerns, the developers end up with a lot of money sitting around without a mechanism to get it back, at a pretty profit. So it's time to start lobbying.
For road improvement funding that has been promised for over 20 years?
No, to put pressure on Christiansburg Town Council to adhere to its Comprehensive Plan. Enter Delegate
Dave Nutter.
Since federal and state dollars are slow in arriving and costs are increasing by the hour, maybe the first step to address this problem is to revise the town's Comprehensive Plan. Put everything that's not developed under agriculture and/or conservation zoning until the infrastructure (road, traffic lights and a bigger elementary school) is there to support the additional growth.
Let's face it. The Peppers Ferry and Franklin interchange represents a cash cow, bringing in millions of dollars in tax revenues. Real estate taxes, state sales taxes, merchant taxes, personal property taxes, and meals taxes. Even Blacksburg benefits by receiving a portion of the state sales taxes allocated back to the county.
There's a lot of commerce going on within the borders of Montgomery County, and it's realistic to believe a large portion of this is being generated around the Peppers Ferry / North Franklin intersection.
So getting the funding for all needed upgrades to Peppers Ferry should be the highest priority of all elected officials -- federal, state and local. Not broken into phases or by government boundaries. Take the money that is available and use it for traffic lights, deceleration or turn lanes and other safety measures. Four-lane as much as possible from Franklin Road towards Radford.
There's no time to look back and figure out why the General Assembly's Local Partnership Fund was only utilized for the Tom's Creek interchange, and not the higher priorities for bridge repair on Route 11 or Peppers Ferry improvements.
VDoT is already seen by many as having a trust issue with Christiansburg residents -- just look at the Franklin/460 by-pass and Cambria interchange for one reason. The Peppers Ferry project has been promised for two decades, and much of the development that has occurred around this interchange was approved in anticipation of the road project being completed -- years ago.
But this agency doesn't fund itself and cannot move projects forward without money for construction of state roads.
Christiansburg leaders and residents need to gather their collective voice, with support from county and neighboring leaders, to bring whatever resources are needed to move this project forward now. Developers should jump on this bandwagon, too, rather than pressure town council about its Comprehensive Plan.
It's time for Delegate Nutter to schedule another meeting -- providing enough lead time so area residents know about it and can plan to attend it -- to work this problem and move the road project from a plan to reality.
In the meantime, Christiansburg Town Council may want to seriously consider re-working its Comprehensive Plan. Just like the VDoT's Peppers Ferry road project, it's just a concept, a "plan."
Let all new, proposed development wait for the road.