Sunday, October 05, 2008
Editorial: Keep affordable housing close to downtown
Merrimac Road is too far from Blacksburg's jobs.
From the RoundTable blog
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Blacksburg town leaders know they need to do something about the housing supply. Homes are expensive, and Virginia Tech students overrun apartments.
The town had hoped a public-private partnership with a Christiansburg developer could create a third housing option. With the help of some federal funding, they planned to build homes for low- to moderate-income families and individuals. Teachers, police and store clerks would be able to live in the community in which they work.
The town had its eyes on a property out Harding Avenue from which residents could walk, bike or catch a bus to downtown and campus. They could save money and maybe get a little exercise.
But the property is just outside the town limits. To make all the finances work, it needed to move inside, and that meant cooperation from the county.
County supervisors were anything but cooperative. They raised phantom fears, old grudges and, inexplicably, hostility to federal housing assistance as reasons not to do a boundary adjustment. Then they said they would think about it.
For months, they held closed-door meetings, cutting the public and Blacksburg out of the process. Weeks passed without even a peep from supervisors, and last week the town and the developer gave up. There was not enough time left to close on the property.
Supervisors delayed long enough to kill a project they peevishly opposed. They did not even have to vote on the record.
Relations between town and county were tense enough with townspeople subsidizing services for county residents and the struggle over the Old Blacksburg Middle School. This fiasco can only worsen them.
Meanwhile, the town and its private partner are scrambling for an alternative. The best option so far is land on Merrimac Road, far from downtown, and it's not that great. It is beyond reasonable walking distance to downtown and biking on busy Prices Fork Road would be dangerous. The bus line does not even reach the site right now.
The town has promoted alternative transportation options for its residents. From Merrimac, people will need cars to get anywhere useful.
Before rushing into that site, the town should be sure no better options exist. A housing development that caters to low- and moderate-income households needs more than inexpensive buildings. It needs ready access to services, workplaces and everything else to succeed.
