Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Twin Creeks Mobile Home Estate is one of the multiple properties revitalized by Doug Hardymon's Norwood Development. Below: Hardymon stands near what was once a used car lot on Radford Road in the Plum Creek village. Hardymon owns a development company that is taking part in revitalizing the depressed area. "You don’t want to see this when you come to Montgomery County," he said.

Household surveys were distributed, meetings were held and neighborhoods were explored and photographed.

Now, Montgomery County planner Meghan Dorsett holds in her hands finished plans for the seven villages of Riner, Belview, Prices Fork, Plum Creek, Elliston, Lafayette and Shawsville.

The next step, Dorsett said, is to put the plans into action, something she calls the "implementation phase" of planning. This phase includes writing grant proposals, revising the county's zoning ordinance to match the village plans and sharing the plans with the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

"Part of implementing a plan is talking to neighbors and looking at how what you created in one jurisdiction works in neighboring jurisdictions," Dorsett said.

The model, introduced almost four years ago in the county's comprehensive plan for 2025, is designed to focus 80 percent of the county's growth, an estimated 10,000 residents per decade, into the villages. Villages are small, urban areas within the county that do not have their own governing bodies like the towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg, said Steve Sandy, the county's planning director.

The six village plans, which pair the villages of Elliston and Lafayette together, include ideas brainstormed by county officials and residents and approved by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. The Prices Fork plan was approved in 2005, and the other five plans were approved in June. Shortly thereafter, the board approved a Village Transportation Links plan that would connect the villages and Christiansburg, Blacksburg and Radford through a series of bike and walkways. All of the plans are available on the county's Web site.

Community members who participated in the drafting process are anxious to see their ideas actualized.

"We're all excited about this. We're wanting to get this off to a great start," said Doug Hardymon, who attended Plum Creek's village planning meetings with county officials last spring.

Hardymon is a Pulaski County resident but operates Norwood Development Grading and Paving with his brother, Ron Hardymon, in Plum Creek.

The community sits in the flood plain of its namesake and serves as a gateway to Montgomery County for those traveling from Radford on U.S. 11. Before Interstate 81 was built in 1965, the road was the primary highway between the county and the city, and Plum Creek was chock full of restaurants, bars and a general store, the village plan states. Now, the village is characterized by more abandoned buildings and used car lots than Hardymon would like.

"We all agreed on one thing: to clean up the area and give it a better look," he said.

The "look" that Hardymon hopes to achieve includes more community businesses, better roads and more recreational opportunities for children.

It's a vision touted in all six village plans, which also unanimously call for preserving natural scenery and historic landmarks, creating a storm-water management plan, building affordable housing and a trail network, and establishing a clear gateway into each village.

Although each village hopes to maintain and market its own features, these objectives were identified by village residents across the board -- at least those who participated in the drafting process.

George Smith, a retired physician in Shawsville, said he is happy with his village's plan, but disappointed by the number of residents who showed up for community meetings.

"We did have five or six, but something this important, we should have had more," Smith said. "I doubt that 10 percent of the people know everything in the village plan."

Debbie Miller, who helped draft Belview's village plan, is comforted by the fact that the drafts are complete and entering into the implementation phase. She and her husband operate Willow Springs Tree Farm in Belview and have lived in the community surrounding Peppers Ferry Road for 26 years.

"I thought the whole idea of just having a plan in place was a wonderful step forward," Miller said.