Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Roanoke: Stick to the plan
From the RoundTable blog
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Jim Crawford
Crawford is a cultural geographer, a long-time resident of the Mountain View neighborhood and is on the board of the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation.
Currently, we in the city are debating a plan to commercially develop a restaurant in a city park on Mill Mountain. These developers are calling the restaurant a community center to bypass the present zoning on the mountain, which does not allow a restaurant, and also are ignoring the fact that there is already a nicely-scaled community meeting facility (Discovery Center) nestled within 40 yards of the proposed restaurant.
This one restaurant is being touted to be an economic boon for the city. Besides reducing usable parkland, it misses the heart of what Roanokers feel is important for the city to grow: good jobs, good neighborhoods, good schools, low crime, and user friendly parks and greenways.
We must urge our city leaders to prioritize our efforts to begin this revitalization process. We have a plan. City planners, working with neighborhoods and business leaders, have drawn up, and city council has adopted, an ambitious plan to address our problems,
The city's plans are at the core of Roanoker Erin Strulson's Hurt Park, Mountain View and West End District Revitalization Plan written for Virginia Commonwealth University's master of urban and regional planning program. Over the past five months, Strulson worked in collaboration with VCU faculty, Roanoke staff and local citizens to study these neighborhoods adjacent to downtown Roanoke. The plan presents recommendations to address specific neighborhood needs, in context to the area's past, present and projected conditions and trends, with the intent that local decision-makers, business and property owners, and residents use it as a tool for improving and enhancing the quality of life in this area of the city.
It is reasonable to say that Roanoke's other urban neighborhoods share many of the assets and liabilities found by Strulson's study of this inner city district.
In 2001, Roanoke adopted a comprehensive plan: Vision 2001-2020. The plan is intended to help coordinate development in the city and promote the community's overall vision of the future. In 2003, city council adopted the Hurt Park, Mountain View and West End Neighborhood Plan as a component of Vision 2001-2020. Strulson's work furthers the progress toward implementation and revitalization of this urban neighborhood. Inherent in the city's planning efforts is the fact that community development equals economic development.
The task at hand will not be easy, but we are not the first city to experience urban decay, educational decline, crime and other challenges to a diverse, vital place to live. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. We have a plan.
In this plan, by 2020, Roanoke is envisioned as "a growing dynamic, and sustainable city that is focused on the future with a strong, diverse economy and a balanced and growing population that values and enjoys a high quality of life in a safe and attractive environment.
"Working together, the city and the region boast a steady growth in jobs and residents, higher school scores, improved government services and a broader range of recreational and entertainment activities. Through regional cooperation, the mountain views and ridge tops are protected and are easily accessed by a network of greenways that link downtown, neighborhoods, and regional parks and parkways."
There is nothing more deflating for a city or neighborhood than to see an ambitious comprehensive plan adopted only to have the city's attention be diffused by schemes and debate that are at best much lower down the list of priorities or sometimes not a priority at all.
We can shift this dialogue. Roanoke is already implementing parts of its revitalization plan. I urge city leaders, business leaders and citizens to stick to our priorities. Interested citizens can contact our dedicated city planners, neighborhood groups and read Strulson's work as well as the city's plans and become part of the solution that Roanoke needs and deserves. If the citizens lead, the politicians will follow.
Unfortunately for Roanoke, Strulson will be taking a full-time position as an associate planner for Parsons Corp. in Richmond. Someday, I hope she can return to a revitalized Roanoke, thanks in part to her work and many other dedicated city employees, business leaders and citizens committed to Roanoke's future. Come on, let's keep our priorities straight.
A compact disc and hard copy of her work can be obtained at the Roanoke Planning, Building and Development Department.
