2003 Student Community Survey

Introduction

2003 Community Survey

2003 Student Community Survey

Acknowledgements

Methods

Analysis

Who Participated? (Part 2)

What are the Issues? (Part 3.1-3)

What you like about the county?

What you dislike about the county?

What are the biggest problems facing the county?

Suggestions for the Board of Supervisors (Part 3.4)

Rating the Issues (Part 3.5)

Describing the Future (Part 4)

Mapping Project

Mapping Project Results (Part 5)

Data:

Demographics (Part 2)

Likes: (Part 3.1)

Dislikes: (Part 3.2)

Concerns: (Part 3.3)

Comments to the Board of Supervisors

Describing the Future

 

 

Note: The illustrations included in Montgomery County, 2025 were drawn by students enrolled in area schools. The drawings represent the students' views of their homes, their neighborhoods, and their county.

Introduction

If you drove from Blacksburg to Christiansburg, before 1975, you would see Corning on right and a small strip mall, anchored by a Cheds store, on the left. While there were houses edging 460, the majority of the land was still agricultural and the town edges were still reasonably well defined. In 1975, Riner and Prices Fork were still small villages, surrounded by farm land, and separated from the other populated areas of the county by narrow two-lane roads and reasonably light traffic. The only golf courses were located in or near Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Aside from the Radford Arsenal and Corning, the only major industrial parks were located in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Indeed, the economy was defined more by the Arsenal, agriculture and the two universities (Virginia Tech and Radford University, located in the adjacent city of Radford). Virginia Tech was still in the midst of rapid expansion, following the change from an all-male military institution to a co-ed university. While there were new subdivisions being built, most were located adjacent to the two major population centers (Blacksburg and Christiansburg).

The population of Montgomery County, in 1975, was 58,400. By 2000, the population of Montgomery County had grown to 83,629, a 40% increase. The farmland that separated Blacksburg and Christiansburg was gone, replaced by increasingly urban growth patterns; the edges of the two towns and the villages of Riner and Prices Fork were changed and obscured by residential growth; the town commercial centers had shifted to an expanding mall area between the two towns and on the northern border of Christiansburg; traffic was increasingly congested, before VDoT constructed a new bypass from I-81 to Blacksburg; the economy and labor market shifted away from agriculture and increasingly towards retail and commercial enterprises and industrial growth. Indeed, the only constant was the continuing impact of Virginia Tech.

In 2000, Montgomery County started the process of revising and updating the county's comprehensive plan. The changes over the past 25 years, however, suggested that the comprehensive plan needed more than a simple update. The population, on the whole, is far more diverse, and the issues facing the county are far more complex than they were in 1975 when the county first started thinking in terms of long range planning. Rather than repeating the processes used in 1977, 1983, and 1990, the Planning Commission and the Planning Department decided to try a whole new approach, an approach that relies heavily on the provision of public information on the one hand and public participation and input on the other. Indeed, Montgomery County, 2025 is a community-driven comprehensive plan.

The Community Facilitators Initiative and Community Survey is part of Phase IV of the comprehensive planning process. Starting on January 2nd, the Montgomery County Planning Department, with the help of community facilitators from a broad range of community organizations, has been distributing copies of the community survey to Montgomery County residents and workers and the student survey through the Montgomery County Public Schools. The Planning Department decided that, given the plan's timeframe (22 years), students (k-12) should be included in the planning process.

 

Methods

 

Analysis

Demographics (Part 2)

Specific Issues: (Part 3)

Montgomery County in the Future (Part 4, Question 1)

Strategies & Solutions (Part 4, Question 2)

Places to Conserve (Part 4, Question 3)

Places to Develop (Part 4, Question 4)

Mapping Project

Places to Conserve (Part 4, Question 3)

Places to Develop (Part 4, Question 3)

Mapping Project Results (Part 5)

Data:

Demographics (Part 2)

Specific Issues: (Part 3)

Montgomery County in the Future (Part 4, Question 1)

Strategies & Solutions (Part 4, Question 2)

Places to Conserve (Part 4, Question 3)

Places to Develop (Part 4, Question 4)

 

 

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Last Updated: 28 March, 2003
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