Courtesy of Montgomery County

A rendering of what the planned courthouse and parking garage would look like from the town Municipal Building. The current courthouse is in the upper right corner.

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Main Street in downtown Blacksburg.

CHRISTIANSBURG -- A slew of key issues that will affect the town for much of the foreseeable future will be topics tonight as the town council kicks off the new year.

The council's first 2009 meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building. Among other agenda items, three hot-button issues to be discussed at the meeting deal with the aquatics center, a downtown parking garage and a boundary line adjustment agreement with Montgomery County.

Any resident wanting to address council may do so during the public hearing and public comment portions of the meeting. Council will ask that all speakers state their names and addresses and adhere to a five-minute time limit.

Aquatics center

Town Manager Lance Terpenny recently said the contract between the town and Virginia Tech on the new aquatics center has been finalized and is ready to be signed.

The $14.5 million facility, which has been planned since 2004, is on pace to open this spring, missing its original Jan. 1 target date. The two-story, 52,000-square-foot center will house three pools and space for such things as recreational swimming, children's birthday parties and Atlantic Coast Conference and other swimming meets.

The contract would give Tech exclusive privileges at the center, including reserved pool times for team training and rights to host swim meets. Tech, in return, would pay the town $250,000 annually for the next 20 years, receiving the remaining five years of the 25-year contract free of charge.

The council plans to publicly discuss the terms of the contract at tonight's meeting, while accepting any other bids for use of the center. Terpenny said he and Tech President Charles Steger are satisfied with the contract and expect it will soon be signed.

In a recent post on her blog, Depot Dazed, resident Carol Lindstrom wrote she is wary of the deal and posed 13 questions she has about the agreement with Tech.

"Who will be handling concessions at the Aquatic Center? If Tech does, then there will be no tax revenue generated for the town," Lindstrom wrote. She also questioned how the time and property will be shared between Tech's swimming team and the town, among other things.

At the last meeting Dec. 16, council members pressed the issue of Director of Aquatics Terry Caldwell's business plan for the center, which has not yet been completed. Terpenny said a council member added the item to tonight's agenda, hoping to get further clarification on the due date for the plan.

"The plan is not complete yet but will be finished before council's date [of March 1]," Terpenny said Monday.

He said he doesn't expect a lot of discussion on the matter, just clarification on the due date.

Downtown parking garage

A joint public hearing will be held for a conditional use permit to allow Montgomery County to construct a parking garage at the intersection of First and Pepper streets.

The 137-space, two-story parking structure would accompany the county's new 98,500-square-foot, $27 million courthouse, scheduled for a 2011 completion date.

At Monday's planning commission meeting, commissioners recommended that stipulations be added to the permit requiring the county to provide landscaping to make the structure not "look like a parking garage" and blend in with the current downtown feel by adding light poles, decorative baskets and planter boxes. The commissioners also expressed concern about whether the county will provide handicapped parking.

Architect Jack Murphy will present new renderings at tonight's meeting based on their recommendations, and the commissioners said they hope he can answer their parking question.

Vice Mayor and street committee member Brad Stipes said he is optimistic about the impact the new courthouse and garage would have on the town.

"If we can work through some of these details to the town's satisfaction and the county's needs, then the end result is going to be positive for the town," Stipes said.

Boundary line adjustment

Council plans to take action on a boundary line adjustment with Montgomery County, which would add an additional 153 acres to the town limits.

The adjustment involves land owned by F&B Land L.P. adjacent to Buffalo Drive and Mud Pike Road on the current southwest boundary of the town. The property contains Christiansburg Middle School and the Harkrader Sports Complex.

According to the agreement, the land would become a part of Christiansburg, and the land owner would pay the county $2,000 per residential lot. For commercial lots, the owner must pay the difference between the county's facility fee for sewer service and the connection fee charged by the town, in return for the county's losing sewer service because of the boundary change.

Stipes said because the property is adjacent to the exiting boundary, the adjustment is a logical decision. He also said the overall acreage is consistent with the town's R-1 zoning, which is "good zoning to have in your community." R-1 is a low-density zoning for single-family homes.

The town would receive more money from the state, including sales tax, and property owners would receive lower water and sewer rates, garbage collection and snow removal by becoming part of the town.