On March 5, 2010, the Virginia Senate voted (39-Y 0-N) to pass the Charter change that will move Christiansburg Town elections to November beginning in 2011. (more…)
I couldn’t say it any better than this:
http://www.thinkchristiansburg.com/confoundedinchristiansburg/foia-potential-abuse.aspx
Despite Brad Stipes’ virtual one-person campaign to make good use of funding available to the town to improve/add sidewalks, the damage was done. Once again, the “let’s wait and see” attitude resulted in a last minute rush to get something processed. (more…)
Effective immediately DepotDazed.com and myvaresources.com/blogs/depotdazed will not be mirror images of each other. I do far too much research in too many areas and sometimes key Christiansburg/NRV issues get lost in the shuffle. (more…)
More than a few jaws dropped when at the last Town Council meeting I stood up and spoke in favor of a development for an ‘elder housing’ development. (more…)
Pretty as it may well be now, all of that snow is eventually going to melt. That means storm water issues may again come to the forefront in a lot of Christiansburg citizen’s minds. The potential for problems is compounded by the fact that prior to the snow, the ground was pretty much saturated all ready. This means less absorption and more run off. This means that any sites where storm water management techniques were not adequate previously are likely to become even worse. The rate at which the snow melts will be of extreme importance in watching out for problems.
On another note, storm water does eventually end up in creeks and streams. How do the material applied to the road to clear them affect these? I’ll refer you to a group that knows a lot more about snow than I do. The University of Michigan has a nice Occupational Saftey and Environmental Health: Storm Water website that provides a lot of information, including best management practices. Interesting read while you’re snowed in! Do keep an eye out for those storm water drains near you that are now covered in snow and ice. If there are any items buried within that snow that can fill or block that drain, problems are likely to arise!
In the meantime, a few prayers that the snow melts very, very slowly might be in order. Me? I’m going to start building a boat at the Depot and have it ready. If we’ve got flooding problems already and snow falling in record levels, the effects of the annual Spring melt should be interesting. Enjoy the snow but be ready to deal with the side effects.
Money speaks! Campaign ads, political party positions, financial help, health care debate, and even local and state elections can be greatly distorted by the rhetoric that money can buy!
Determining what it says and who it says it to is a fine art for those who want to know what their money is really saying.
The loudest voices are usually related to small numbers of people/groups who have a lot of money backing them. Simply turn on the TV and watch the ads that are available. Most of these are not truly informational because they are slanted to vocalize one side of an issue or the other. This is the ploy used by candidates, elected officials, political parties, and special interest groups. Their goal is spread the word…their word to every ear that they can. They trust that people will accept what is said because of who they have doing the talking or by some logo or name affiliated with their ’cause’. They trust that people will trust them to give the truth. Well, they do give the truth, but as my mother always said “There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the ‘truth’.”
You see, truth is not that easy to identify. What is ‘truth’ to one person can be an absolute lie to another. I personally use some specific subsets of truth when I am looking at a situation. First, I look at ‘reactive truth’. This is where something is going on that has a direct effect on me right now and I have an immediate ‘gut’ reaction to it. In essence, it is emotion driven. Second, there is ‘relative truth’ which is where I calm down a bit and look at what has been said and process that information based on what I have found through life experiences such as listening to others, reading, experiencing, etc. This tends to be more of a cognitive assessment of the truth. Then, lastly, there is a synthesis truth where I look at my emotional reactions and compare them to the data (facts) in an effort to determine whether my reactions are, indeed, based upon facts or whether someone has simply tried to use fear as a tool to shift my thinking and values. All too often, I find that there has been a fairly blatant attempt by someone to do exactly that, frighten me in order to get me to climb onto their ‘bandwagon’.
Examples of how people’s emotions and fear have been used to distort reality in order to serve the needs of the few are rampant throughout the Health Care Debate. They are also freely flowing in the negative campaign ads that we have seen devolve into ‘mud-slinging’ circuses during recent campaigns.
The problem is that these types of tactics work now and will continue to work so long as people make the assumption that those people in power (whether governmental, financial, or other based) are going to look out for the interest of the people. In order to find that out, people need to care enough about what is happening to be willing to look and think for themselves. Whenever you see an ad that automatically makes you think something negative about someone or something simply stop for a few minutes and ask yourself who will benefit if you let yourself respond to the fear or anger that the ad creates. You may well be surprised at what you begin to see. In particular, dig a bit to see whose money is covering the costs of those ads. That, alone, can be very insightful!
Well, the controversy really doesn’t seem to be about cell towers so much as what to do when it doesn’t come out until the Public Hearing that…oops…by the way, where the party wanting to put the cell tower doesn’t have enough space to make it consistent with the Town Code.
Maybe I’m weird (yeah…yeah..yeah…some of you are already convinced of that), but I would have thought that would have been at least vaguely mentioned during the Planning Commission meeting on this, or perhaps even at the time the Conditional Use Permit was applied for? Videos of these meetings are available at myvaresources.com.
At the next Planning Commission Meeting, this should be addressed again (unless the applicant pulls it) and then it would go before the Town Council at their next meeting.
Since the issue in question has to do with the setback requirements needing to be at least the height of the tower according to the Town Code when discussion had indicated that 30′ from street and 45′ from other buildings was adequate for a 150′ tower. (Maybe not when the Code specifies a setback that is at least the height of the tower.)
I figured I would just do a bit of research on the issue. Rather than go into all of the details here, I set up a .pdf file as a primer for anyone interested in learning more. There is a brief introduction, then a history that includes a review of Planning Commission and Town Council Meeting Minutes concerning all discussions involving cell towers. Then, I went into the Comprehensive Plan and the Town Code for specifics. This primer is available at the Special Sudies Page of myvaresources.com just click on the link “Citizen’s Cell Tower Primer”. (Look for more such documents in the future.)
The Town Code section gives all the information needed to devise a checklist to see if all of the necessary steps have been followed.
One solution that was presented by Planning Director, Randy Wingfield, was that the Town could simply change the Code. Huh? Say, do what?
Well, let’s think about that possibility for a moment. What if the Town changed the Code so that a 35′ setback was adequate. How many places are there in Christiansburg where someone owns property that they would like to make some money from. The companies who rent space for those towers pay pretty darned well. Of course, unless they change some other parts of the Code, only Agricultural and Industrial I & II properties would be possible locations. Since most of the Agricultural land has been scarfed up for developments, what little there is left is often surrounded by rather high density housing. As to the Industrial I & II locations, well gosh, they’re surrounded by residential areas too.
How many of you want to have a view that includes a closeup and personal perspective of a cell tower? Right now, they are talking about one property. Any discussion of changing the Town Codes could affect a lot of other properties. What happens to property values around such facilities? What about research concerning health and safety hazards? How will the required safety lighting affect you?
There are a lot of issues to be addressed that are mentioned in the .pdf file I setup. Not the least of these is a commitment to work on a regional approach to the installation of these structures so that there is a minimal negative impact. (A copy of this regional agreement is included in the text.)
Times are hard. People need money, the Town needs money. But we MUST think about the long term impacts of such decision on everyone, not just a few. The potential impact on property values, insurance, health, safety, and well being of citizens must be acknowledged during any decision-making process.
The League of Women Voters of Virginia has a great website set up where you can get information on candidates throughout the state at state, regional, and local levels. Please take a few minutes to check it out.
When you go in to cast your vote, you are affecting:
And, the list goes on for a long, long time. Your vote is important because the outcome of elections will have a long term effect on your quality of life, your financial resources, your community, and your state.
Please take the time to go vote on November 3rd. And remember that a vote to move the elections to November in Christiansburg will mean a saving of approximately $5000/election (at the minimum, that could double in the next couple of years). Could you think of a better use for that money? Maybe a local farmer’s market? Maybe to apply to the Aquatic Center interest payments? Maybe host another baseball or basketball tournament to bring more business in to the community? Maybe help support the Library or the Free Clinic? Maybe to use as the ‘matching funds’ to help develop sidewalk-trail systems that actually connect with something? Think about it!
YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE! USE IT! DON’T REMAIN SILENT!
The Planning Commission Meeting held on 10/19/09 (video) showed one of the central issues associated with rezoning requests. (Note the Agenda for this meeting was not on the Town’s website at the time of this writing.)
At the 10/5/09 Planning Commission Meeting, the issue was first presented of rezoning 6.47 acres from A (Agriculture) to R-3 (Multi-Family Residential) Zoning. This is property on the souther side of Diana Drive. A Joint Public Hearing was held on 10/6/09 in Town Council Chambers. Although not as controversial as the Boxley Concrete Products Zoning Permit request, this rezoning from A to R-3 raised quite a bit of citizen interest. (Minutes of this meeting are not yet available on the Town’s website. However, there is video of the meeting at myvaresouces.com.) After a good bit of debate, the Planning Commission voted to support the rezoning in a 3 to 1 vote.
A couple of key issues were raised during this discussion:
As to the by right uses under the R-3 zoning, Chapter 30 of the Town Code covers this in Article VI. Well, those are too numerous to mention in their entirety. Your best bet is to go to the link and look at the list but, here are a few examples pulled from that list:
As to age restriction, it was noted that the Town Attorney indicated that the language of the proffers was legal. Does this necessarily mean the same thing as the intention of Town Council? The Virginia Fair Housing Act offers some information:
2. The publication of, and adherence to, policies and procedures which demonstrate an intent by the owner or manager to provide housing for persons fifty-five years of age or older.
B. Housing shall not fail to meet the requirements for housing for older persons by reason of:
1. Persons residing in such housing as of September 13, 1988, who do not meet the age requirements of clauses (ii) and (iii) of subsection A, provided that new occupants of such housing meet the age requirements of those clauses; or
2. Unoccupied units, provided that such units are reserved for occupancy by persons who meet the provisions of clauses (ii) and (iii) of subsection A.
Taking a look at the Comprehensive Plan, Housing Section, on page 8 of 10 you will find the heading Housing Needs and Assistance. It is noted there that:
In the Goals, Objectives and Strategies of this same document:
HOUSING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES, Objective 1 (page 9 of the .pdf)
“Strategies…
In Section I. Summary of Planning Factors…(page 3) Section 7. Housing, para. 2 gives this information:
Okay, that’s it, just wanted to point out some of the topics discussed and where you, as a citizen, could go to find out more information. A final decision on this rezoning will not be made until the next Town Council meeting on November 2, 2009. (In case you need a reminder, that is the day before the election where Christiansburg citizens get to decide whether they want their town elections to be held in November along with County, School Board, and Delegate elections.)
The bottom line is that once the property is rezoned to R-3, this particular development does not have to go in. The owner can sell the property or do any of the byright uses scheduled for R-3 zoning. It should be an interesting meeting.
Blacksburg Mayor’s Blog Brad Stipes, Christiansburg Town Council Roanoke Times Virginia Coalition for Open Government Bacon’s Rebellion New River Valley News Think! Christiansburg New River Journal A Tale of Two Burgs
CAMBRIA DEPOT MUSEUM