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http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/126362
Is a resolution ahead
for old Blacksburg
school property?
A design contest is
in the works, but its outcome is months away.
By Tonia Moxley
381-1676
BLACKSBURG -- While
the old Blacksburg Middle School roof leaks, local officials continue to debate
the building's future. It will likely be another year, maybe two, before
anything can happen with the 20-acre downtown property.
But members of Blacksburg Town
Council and the Montgomery
County Board of
Supervisors expressed optimism Tuesday -- after some open discourse Monday --
that a compromise in the four-year-long debate could be reached.
"There will be
bumps in the road, but we've got to look at the long-term vision and not worry
about the little bumps," Mayor Ron Rordam said.
The bodies spent more
than two hours talking about the future of the old school Monday night and
appeared to still be at loggerheads over the zoning of the property.
Some members pointed
out that as they argue, the building continues to deteriorate. The roof leaks
and some discussed the possibility of a cave-in -- a liability issue and a
situation in which taxpayer money will need to be spent on a building not being
used.
The old Blacksburg Middle School
Transition Committee -- made up of members of both governmental bodies and
at-large members -- made a recommendation Monday to co-sponsor an international
design contest to solicit ideas from architects, designers and developers
inside and outside the New River
Valley for redevelopment
of the old school.
Supervisors
immediately wanted assurances that after the contest the council would rezone
the property from its current low-density residential designation to a
different, potentially more developer-friendly category that would increase the
land's value to several million dollars. The money from the sale of the
property would then be spent on school building projects. But council would not
make any promises about what it might approve for the site.
Despite the continued
debate, supervisors Chairman Steve Spradlin said Tuesday he was encouraged by
the discussion.
"The kind of
talk we had ... frank, honest and open ... I think that has to continue,"
Spradlin said. "It's been four years. We need to get some kind of
resolution."
Rordam and Spradlin
said they would put the design contest on their meeting agendas over the next
month or so and work on consensus among their members.
Ideally, the
supervisors would negotiate a sale or lease of the property with the winner of
the contest, and council would rezone the property to fit that design.
Estimated costs for the competition are $150,000 -- to include a cash prize for
the contest winner. The cost would be shared equally between the town and
county. That is unless one elected body decides to pull out after the contest
begins. Under the proposal, the welsher would pay the entire amount.
A similar contest
held in 1992 to redesign the Blacksburg
branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library brought the two bodies together
and still serves as a guide for development of the downtown municipal complex.
Rordam said he would
work with council to come up with a list of possible zoning classifications for
the property. But some of the more lucrative, including general commercial and
high-density residential, would probably not make that list, Rordam said.
Compromise will be
crucial to the future of the old school. The county school board holds title to
the land and must declare it surplus. At that point, it could be turned over to
the supervisors for sale.
Only the supervisors
have the legal authority to sell the property, school board member Wat Hopkins
has said.
And the sale will
likely be contingent upon the town council's rezoning of the property.
For now, the school
board is holding onto the property as insurance. The board resolved in 2002 to
release the old school for sale only when the supervisors meet three criteria:
opening a new Blacksburg High School sports stadium; buying land for a new
Price's Fork Elementary School; and earmarking money from the sale of the old
middle school for school building needs.
Construction is set
to begin in the next few months on a new stadium, and the supervisors have
promised to put any money from the building into the schools capital
improvement budget. But Spradlin and his board are still working on buying land
for a new Price's Fork
Elementary School.
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