1992 Montgomery County
Open-Space Plan

This Initiative for Open-Space Planning is the product of a process, based on citizen participation, designed to identify open-space resources and evaluate their importance for the future of Montgomery County and Blacksburg. The recommendations from this Initiative are intended to be added to the Comprehensive Plans of Montgomery County (hereafter referred to as County) and the Town of Blacksburg (hereafter referred to as Town) in order to provide guidance for future land-use decisions.

The Initiative is a direct outgrowth of the 1990 Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan and the 1991 Town of Blacksburg Comprehensive Plan. Both documents contain statements calling for: (1) an effort to identify important natural and cultural resources within each community and (2) specific recommendations for how each jurisdiction should guide growth as it protects these resources.

The term "open space" has a variety of definitions. Instead of providing one definition that catches the full meaning, several definitions touching on the different aspects of open space are provided below.

A widely publicized definition occurs in The Job of the Practicing Planner by Albert Solnit. Solnit defines open space as:

This definition shows the broad spectrum of possible uses and ownerships that open space encompasses. Solnit's definition focuses on the human uses and benefits that open space provides. Humans, however, are not the only ones who directly benefit from the protection of open space. Some people may define open space as land left undisturbed in its natural state performing ecological functions, such as aquifer recharge, providing plant and animal habitat, land movement (examples are sinkhole subsidence and landslides), nutrient recharge, and floodwater retention.

Section 58.1-3230 of the Code of Virginia provides another definition of open space. This definition falls under the land-evaluation and taxation section of the Code. Section 58.1-3230 defines open space as:

As these definitions indicate, open space is a generic term for a wide variety of natural and cultural resources.

The Open-Space Planning Initiative is a model for conservation and development that attempts to provide for and promote economic growth in the New River Valley while protecting the valuable natural and cultural resources of the area. To achieve these seemingly conflicting goals of development and conservation, this plan takes a regional approach by uniting the visions of the citizens from the Town of Blacksburg and Montgomery County. The Open-Space Planning Initiative is designed to be a beacon that provides guidance for people wishing to develop their property. This Initiative will provide the information and tools necessary for making wise land-use decisions. The Initiative intends to provide landowners with more flexibility and opportunity when developing their land, while at the same time protecting the resources that are important for the community's health, welfare, and safety. Thus, the Open-Space Initiative is meant to promote economic development, conserve natural and cultural resources, provide landowners with alternative development options, provide the public with a comprehensive source of information on the resources of the area, and plan for the future needs of our community.

The vision for the Open-Space Initiative is supported by both communities within their respective Comprehensive Plans. Although the Blacksburg Comprehensive Plan and Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan are written in different styles, they both emphasize the need to identify important natural and cultural resources in their communities and recommend consideration of these resources in making land-use decisions.

Both documents call for the creation of open-space plans and establishment of specific protection strategies for use within each community. However, while the Blacksburg Comprehensive Plan addresses the need for creating growth-management tools as their principal implementation strategy for protecting natural and cultural resources, the Montgomery County Comprehensive Plan stresses the use of private-sector and individual-landowner initiatives as their principal open-space-protection strategy.

Both Comprehensive Plans identify prime farmland and historic resources as key assets that require protection in their respective communities. Both Plans also stress the importance of retaining active agricultural operations as vital economic and cultural enterprises. In addition, both Comprehensive Plans call for the formation of land trusts as an important conservation strategy for managing open space. The County and Town Comprehensive Plans stress the need for future cooperation between the two jurisdictions and Virginia Tech. The Initiative heeds this counsel by jointly compiling background data, providing opportunities for public input, and selecting recommendations. The Initiative's goal is to develop a strategy for the community through citizen involvement. The effort will:

When an extensive initiative such as this is undertaken, other local, state, and federal plans and programs should be consulted to determine that conflicts do not exist. If such occur, modifications to the Initiative or the plan with which it is in conflict may be considered. A review of local, state, and federal plans and ordinances was used to avoid conflicts with other plans and programs during the development of the Open-Space Initiative.

Before beginning any successful project, a clearly defined planning process should be outlined. A step-by-step process was outlined for this Initiative (see Figure 1.1). To ensure that any interested citizen could provide input, the process permitted changes during the development and after creation of an initial draft document. This section summarizes the planning process followed while preparing this document and the recommendations in Chapter Five.

Early in the planning process, a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was formed to provide information, guidance, and feedback to the individuals who worked on this plan. This committee included academics, government personnel, and professional planners.

After completing the initial data-collection phase of the process, the project team realized that substantial community involvement was necessary for this plan to achieve its goals. Thus, a community-involvement specialist was added to the TAC and two separate citizen groups were formed to help guide the planning process. Montgomery County established its Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) and the Town of Blacksburg formed the Blacksburg Oversight Committee (BOC).

Membership in the County CAC was voluntary and members were free to join or quit at any time in the process. Blacksburg's BOC was a voluntary group appointed by the Town Planning Commission. The two advisory committees were established during the winter of 1991-1992 to give direction in preparing and integrating the Initiative's recommendations into the Blacksburg and Montgomery County Comprehensive Plans. The committees included representatives of the farming community, business and industry, real-estate sales and development, engineers, planners, planning-commission members, individuals interested in conservation of resources and preservation of historical sites, owners of large tracts of land, owners of riparian land, bankers, and Town and County residents. Committee- members' interests ranged from concerns about balancing growth with conservation to protecting landowners' rights.

In addition to the two citizen committees, instructors and students in Virginia Tech's Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, which specializes in community involvement, were recruited into the process. With their assistance the County, Town and New River Valley Planning District (NRVPDC) planning staffs organized two kickoff meetings (one for Town, a second for the County) and three rounds of public-involvement meetings (see Table 1.1).

Those attending the kickoff meetings learned about the issues involved in open-space planning. Then, workshops were held at several different locations throughout the County to make it easier for citizens to attend the meetings. Three series of workshops were held, totalling nineteen individual workshops, each series serving a specific purpose.

The first workshops provided an opportunity to identify critical open-space resources. The second series of workshops discussed perceived threats to these resources. The final series of workshops, which involved three separate meetings at each of three locations, outlined the Initiative's draft recommendations and solicited landowner input.

Establishing the design of the meetings and their presentations, as well as reviewing the input received, was a joint effort by the students, planning staff, BOC, and CAC. Each meeting was critiqued for its effectiveness. Meeting format and topic presentations were modified in response to these critiques. The comments made by Town and County citizens at these meeting were recorded; copies of these comments are on file at the Montgomery County Planning Office.

The Open-Space Initiative is to be presented to the Blacksburg Town Council and Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. These governing bodies and their respective planning commissions will review the Open-Space-Initiative recommendations (see Chapter Five) for amendment to each jurisdiction's Comprehensive Plan. A series of public hearings will be held as a part of this decision making process. The following sequence of events will occur in the County and the Town respectively (Figure 1.2).

In the County, the Planning Commission will review the recommendations of the Open-Space Initiative and hold a joint public hearing with the Board of Supervisors. Here citizens can provide comments on the proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Plan. After this public hearing the Planning Commission makes revisions and modifications as deemed appropriate. The Planning Commission will then forward a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The Board then votes whether to approve or disapprove amending the Comprehensive Plan to include some or all of the Initiative's recommendations.

Blacksburg's review process will begin with the Blacksburg Planning Commission holding a public hearing to provide a forum for citizen comment. Based on the comments received and the Commission's review of the Initiative, the Commission may make a recommendation to the Town Council to approve the plan, to approve with modifications, or to reject it. The Town Council then will hold a public hearing for citizen comment on the Initiative's recommendations. After reviewing the Initiative, the Planning Commission's recommendation, and the public hearing comments, the Town Council will decide whether to append the Open-Space-Initiative recommendations to the Town Comprehensive Plan as a contributing document. If the Town Council does append these recommendations to the Comprehensive Plan, the Town planning staff will then prepare a new chapter to the Comprehensive Plan addressing the Initiative's recommendations.