Transcript for Don Langrehr--Incumbent

1. Please take 3-5 minutes to give an opening statement about your candidacy and your vision for Blacksburg.

Thanks for showing up tonight. I appreciate the groups setting this up. What we do at the local level affects land use and that is important for what the future will look like. I’ve done this several times, but this election is more uncomfortable. The other times I was the challenger, but now I am an incumbent and I have to defend my record to you. I feel now I have to soften my image especially since the Roanoke Times runs this picture that makes me look mean. Notice the kinder earth tones I’m wearing.

Since the last election we have faced some major problems together as a community, the incident at the hospital and Huckleberry Trail, at Tech, and South Main. It is draining, but this community - the resourcefulness, the resilience has invigorated me and I want to serve another four years.

Campaigns get the dialog out. I urge people to remind people to get out to vote on May 6. I have bad news and good news. Unfortunately democracy doesn’t really work. You can’t just vote and rely on us. Participatory democracy works really well. When you apply scrutiny to the decisions we are making, we make better decisions.

I’m not running, we are running for election. I promise I’ll continue to enhance and nourish the quality of life in this town and work to prevent anyone from exploiting it. Evaluate me on what I’ve done during the last four years. I want to be your public servant for next four years.

2. In the context of smart growth, can you please give a local example of smart growth and a local example of growth that was planned badly.

When we talk about growth, there is tension there between what is sustainable and growth. We have to talk about it openly. We need to work toward smart growth. The Village at Toms Creek is attempting to do smart growth. It has 50% of open space. I live in Shadow Lake Village where 33 houses are on 28 acres of open space, that’s 70% open. Community Housing project is ¾ of a mile to downtown. It will be a project for working families with 80% of the medium income of town. I am proposing we give them a density bonus for more houses. You can walk within minutes to campus and school, You can get on a bus to CRC. We need to move development toward the interior rather than perimeters.

We hear economic development. We have South Main, downtown, and University Boulevard area. Those should be three primary spots for economic development. We will probably fill in between Christiansburg and Blacksburg. We should be emphasizing cluster development. Our vistas and open space makes Blacksburg special. What we love about it will change.

Infill, cluster development, focus on core economic areas.

• What specific actions would you initiate to preserve the town's green and common spaces?

We have to give incentives to developers to preserve open spaces. I’ve been talking about this for six years. If developers want to build on a farm field and if they preserve open space, we should give them a density bonus so they can build more houses. Right now we only required them to preserve 50% open space. If they volunteer to preserve 60%, we should give them a density bonus of 10%. Houses will be more compact, but it fits in with the cool cities concept. It works for all of us.

3. What do you see as the three major problems facing downtown Blacksburg, how would you prioritize them and what specific measures would you champion to help solve these problems?

We say the same things every time. I am going to defend the actions of town. We spent a tremendous amount of money on downtown. We are going to spend more money to improve facades. I point my finger at negligent property owners. It is not just town’s responsibility, but also the owner’s. Roanoke and Main – beautiful old bank building is deteriorating. Emilio’s right on Main Street with cardboard in the windows. Town has to question whether they are up to code. Instead of allowing this behavior, see what tools we have at our disposal. We have been nice up to this point. A few of us went to visit Greenville, SC, a vibrant town. “How much are the rents?” I ask. $17 to $18 a square foot. Our owners want $25 a square foot and they expect the prospective tenants to pay to invest in the property. High rent and pay to reinvigorate the property.

We have to look at anchor tenants downtown. We need more business rather than bars and restaurants. We need a greengrocer for people who can walk to downtown and buy essential items. If a food store were downtown you wouldn’t have to drive to get to a supper market. Athens, GA, Ithaca, NY, Ashville, NC all have a grocer. Another would be a pharmacy. You can’t survive.

Three problems are high rents, negligent landlords, need for anchors.

• Please share your ideas for how Council and staff can play a more supportive role in attracting and keeping small businesses in downtown and making Blacksburg a more family friendly place?

We are doing that, but can do more. For example, I am trying to recruit businesses. I actually say, “What can we do to get you to come to Blacksburg?” We need to promote ourselves. We have distinct businesses that can’t afford to publicize themselves. Use a bit more of town’s resources to get the word out of the unique businesses of downtown. The Downtown master plan suggested a marketing campaign years ago. We need to do more.

4. Council was blindsided by the big box proposal. In response, Ordinance 1450 was passed to require that future commercial buildings in excess of 80,000 sq. ft. receive special review. How can we make sure we don’t get blindsided again? What criteria other than size might be useful in evaluating a proposed development?

I can talk on this for the whole hour and a half. We have a wonderful comp plan, just revised. It offers a bit of everything for everyone. If bad projects are brought in, they can find something in the comp plan that says this is a good project. We need a comp plan with specific growth and development guidelines that will give us a score card to evaluate proposals. That would tell developers what we are looking for. Real estate developers need a level of accountability. Any project should have utilities and roads available. 90% should be connected to development in town.

We’ll outline what type of incentives we will give you. Preserve open space and we give a 10-15% bonus. If the development has low impact erosion and sediment 80% of rainfall will have to stay there and not flow into storm drains. Developers would know how they would meet favorable criteria.

Traffic – now they only have to help manage the flow. Not the volume and that is what we are concerned about. We set if a project increases traffic by 20% that would be unfavorable unless there is a transit plan attached to that proposal. That would mitigate that problem if you are providing alternative means of transportation.

5. There is a process underway to develop the old Blacksburg Middle School site. Can you discuss specifically how this process will ensure the development of the site in accordance with the community’s wishes and reassure a skeptical public that this development will become a proud reflection of Blacksburg’s unique character?

Great opportunity with the design competition. It is a better plan than town council and the board of supervisors meeting in closed session with developers like done a few years ago. Inviting new designs will give us an opportunity to evaluate what looks good. Some of contestants might not have the funds to get it going. I hope we target it to developers who have been successful. Mixed use would be a good use, raising slightly the density so more could live within walking distance of Tech, downtown, the arts center. A bus line runs right to CRC. The middle school offers us an opportunity to take a step ahead with residents participating. We invite you to participate. Growth and development guidelines – come and talk about more specific criteria. Tell us what you want and help evaluate the designs.

6. In these times of economic and racial challenges for large segments of our nation’s population, what do you think the Town and the Council’s roles should be to assure that Blacksburg recognizes and addresses the local manifestation of these national issues and promotes and monitors progress toward greater inclusion of members from racially/ethnically different groups into Town affairs and the broader community?
Good question. I travel to a lot of college towns. Whenever I go to Chapel Hill, Charlottesville, or Ashville, people say to me, “Don’t let them do to Blacksburg what they did to Charlottesville.” It became too expensive for moderate income people to stay in town. We need more of a vision for economic integration. Progress and Lee streets is a great step. Another couple homes are planned. We are using it to help working families stay in this town. We can do more. Harding Community Housing Project is good. It will bring 70-80 families and it will be affordable. It is imperative we approve that project and with density bonus.
7. Given the Town's decreasing net operating revenues and increasing long-term debt, what is your position on the $.01 increase in the meals tax, currently proposed to address Blacksburg’s immediate need for more police officers and additional staff to maintain downtown cleanliness?
We are going to increase the tax. I am not completely happy about it, but uncomfortable passing that burden on to the restaurateurs. Unlike Christiansburg with national chains, downtown has local restaurants. For independent business owners, it hurts them financially. They have to change registers, work with accounts. Looking in the future – the economic forecast is a bit cloudy. Things don’t look as good. We have to plan. We have to come up with revenue enhancements. We have to look at how we spend money. I question studies that we spent money on; property that we purchased that we paid a little too much. I propose special service districts. Designate certain areas of town, raise property taxes in that area and use the money for that area. If areas are overwhelming our infrastructure, that area should help pay for it. Development should not cost all residents higher taxes. Looking at South Main, if we called it a special district and raised property tax 5 cents for every 100, we could use that money for the pump station, for police areas in that area. That would relieve long time residents who aren’t responsible for that development. We make new developments pay their way.

8. The new Arts Initiative is often cited as an indication of positive Town/Gown relations. What are the opportunities and obstacles to improving mutual support? What are some ideas you’d like to bring to Town/Gown discussions?

Several candidates brought up the meals tax – that’s a no brainer. It should be applied. The town has been pursuing that. Tech is well aware of it. I ask for your participation. I ask for Citizens First and BURG to be part of a campaign to ask Tech for the meals tax. The Performing Arts Center is an opportunity. It will give downtown a kick. If property owners can’t be part of this, they are missing the boat. Council can urge some of that action; we might have to apply pressure. That corridor might be a special service district to handle traffic and handle parking. We have to look ahead to see how to pay for these improvements. We can raise money to help on North Main with parking problems. Perhaps Tech and town could collaborate for a parking deck. Part of negation of the cost would be reconsidering the meals tax. They have an unfair advantage. They are not an offshore tax haven. The university has to realize they can’t pass off those burdens to town. We have to handle water problems and traffic. I am confident this is what downtown needs.

9. Recently stakeholders—including citizens, small business owners, and entrepreneurs—have expressed concerns about the responsiveness and transparency of town staff. How can Council address this problem?

That is a delicate one. Most recently the concern with South Main and concept plans that came in that showed a big box in January. I didn’t find out about it until March. I was extremely discomforted by that. I have addressed it with the town manager. When I first found out, I blew my cork. In any institution there is a status quo. I am going to put responsibility on voters of Blacksburg. You have to identify which candidates that will change status quo. I am one of those and I need help. Town council hears it, the town manager hears it and town management has to change with it. We can’t cakewalk around it. There is that tension between growth and sustainability. I will continue to address it. I am trying to provide open government.

10. Which issues will be the focus of your time and energy on Council? If you could only accomplish three things on Council, what might they be and why?

Guidelines for growth and development issues. If something requires rezoning, or special use or planned development, we need to have criteria that allows us to grade it. We want good mixed projects. It will say what they will look like. If a residential project is proposed, one criteria is school capacity. If 200 homes are added or 50 homes and if the school is already over capacity, we should not look favorably at that project. If Beaks is already working with 6 or 7 trailers, don’t push more kids to that school

Financial special services districts. I don’t want to raise your taxes. The county already does that. I don’t want to pass that burden on to you.

Preserving open space. That is what makes this place special. Our vistas make it special,
green panorama and vistas. Look at Fairfax, Loudon, Henrico, Chesterfield. All looked like this at one time. We have an opportunity to emphasize cluster development and we have to take steps to make that happen.

11. What skills, experiences and personal characteristics do you possess that would make you a more effective Council member than other contenders in achieving cooperation with the public, with fellow council members, with the business community, and with Virginia Tech?

Now that I’ve changed my image to the kindler gentler Don, but seriously my other profession is I am a teacher. I work in an environment where if you can’t get along with people you are not going to be successful. I work with schools, in a university and with students. You have to motivate people to reach the standards you set. I do know how to work with people and sometimes it gets a bit contentious. Sometimes you can’t just get along by just going along.

Business community - I’ve been involved with small businesses. I held a real estate license for one year. I understand the real estate industry and they need to make money too. We can help them as a town earn money and still have a vibrant, healthy community that hasn’t sprawled out.

When we are working with council and residents I recognize human nature. A lot of pride and ego is involved. It often drives their behavior. I understand that and I can bring those skills.

For Incumbents: (Mary, Paul, Don)

12. How did you vote on the rezoning of First and Main and on the stadium and why did you vote that way?

South Main Street, that was an easy vote for me. I voted against that. I read the rezoning application. I teach and emphasize reading comprehension and I recognized what they were implying. Daniele Steele couldn’t do a better job of writing fiction. Some were deceived by the pretty pictures. There were negative implications that I was uncomfortable with and there was no way I could have voted for it. Some said, “I am going to take a gamble.” You do not elect us to gamble with your quality of life. It is not saying no to growth. It is saying no to bad growth.

I was in favor of a new stadium, but I thought it would be a healthier choice if we kept it where it is. The comp plan says downtown should be an educational setting. It would help revitalize downtown. My vote there, I am against sprawling out into more farm fields. The first bad decision was not to use that property as a school. Research shows that schools need to be in neighborhoods. When you sprawl out schools, that is not a goal of mine. We are at logger heads with the county. This is where citizens’ responsibilities come in. In two years these issues will have to be discussed. Election comes at the same time as the Board of Supervisors.

13. Are there votes or other actions that you've taken that you would change? What did you learn from this experience and how will you apply the lessons in the future?

I would love to hear from the public as to the votes I made. I want you to scrutinize the votes I’ve made and that will tell you how I will be the next four years. In a couple of issues I should have been more active. I tried as best I could. I should have fought even more feverishly. I made the right vote, but as it turned out, I should have worked harder to persuade them, but those at the public hearing know I tried. I am comfortable with my votes. You evaluate my votes and see if they fit with your vision of Blacksburg.

Audience questions

1. Thank you for vote on 1412. I thought it was a no brainer. I thank you for 1450. Downtown and vacant buildings - in insurance if a building is vacant for an amount of time, it is a risk. Why won’t the town consider vacant building invites vandalism, crime, fire?

Derelict buildings become public health hazards. If we looked more to our codes, we would find violations. Property owners have to look at our community too. They have a personal responsibility. Residents and property owners are going along with the ride. Developers like Pack and Lester are doing a lot a good things. I don’t know what write- offs vacant property owners are getting . We have said “please” long enough and now have to try a different tactic.

We thought we were going to get a mixed used project. The rugby field was zoned four houses per acre. It was protected by zoning and we removed that protection. Some presumed we would get a mixed use, but we can’t presume. We have to guarantee. Allowing developers to build projects without site plans is bad. We have to know exactly what we are getting.

2. I am not comfortable with 1% meals tax, but it is going to pass? Can you stop it or is it a dead issue?

It is a necessity that we pass it at this point. I vigorously opposed it two years ago. I was successful, but the problems we are facing downtown now makes it necessary. We need more police, things are out of control. Thursday nights there is a lot of broken windows. Business owners can’t continue to take on that burden.

3. What are the road blocks for taxes for Tech?

The Attorney General says we don’t have any power. Tech doesn’t have to collect it. Groups need to talk about it and remind people you are shortchanging the town when you eat on campus. You help town when you eat at local restaurants.

4. In 2006 I suggested we were not in compliance with storm water. In 2008 town has adopted a rewrite of storm water issues. April 3 I was given copy of draft form of the ordinance. The new ordinance has 9 changes and the last paragraph is a waiver for existing projects. Whose responsibility is it? How can town exempt state and federal law?

Many of those issues I am very concerned about storm water. The ordinance was housekeeping. We changed to meet minimal requirements of the state. That isn’t good enough for our town. It goes back to status quo. We will have a task force. I am trying. I am one of seven. If you are concerned, you have the opportunity to pick three that are going to move in this direction. I am not ignoring the concerns.

5. What about due process and citizens’ ability to get information?

Process has been several months. I am uncomfortable. I disagree about not enough public notice. We had public meetings and public notices. We had two dates in March with nothing else on the agenda. We did have enough public exposure, but that isn’t saying that ordinance is good enough. It is not. We have a task force now and I am on it. There will be changes made.

6. I have four questions: Has the town looked at other university towns in the state about sales tax? Why have meetings during the day when citizens can’t come? Are you in favor of passing a town rule not to pass contentious issues on same night? Are you in favor of more being on paper at time of rezoning?

If it is a good project, it will be approved. Site plans don’t have to worry if we are clear about the guidelines. Another criteria could be energy efficiency a LEED certified building we will look favorably. If it is in the site plan and proffers, I’m voting for it. This is what we are looking for. Give us a site plan that meets these standards.

I am in favor of a two week delay on contentious. We do that now and will continue to do it.

I am in favor of televising the work sessions during the day. Luckily I am a college professor and have an understanding department. It is unfair for residents not to be able to see and hear what we say. We should not work in private. It would be easy to turn the camera on.

Sales tax. Someone will look town by town to see if they contribute. Radford University contributes. Radford University is planning on building more student housing on campus. Tech allows the private sector to take care of student housing. Maple Ridge is 1.5 miles away and students drive to campus. If Tech is committed to being a green university, keep your students close. Tech is one of the few that doesn’t have a graduate student housing complex with child care and bus service. That would be an affordable, part of the perk of being a graduate assistant. It would help relieve the strain on town and improve life of the students.

7. Transportation. Do you see Blacksburg as a bicycle friendly community? Should it be and what to do about it?

50% of my reason to move to Blacksburg was to ride my bike here. Now 25 years later, I am here riding my bike. I know I put more miles on my bike than most. We are semi-bike friendly. The corridor committee trying to link trails. It is an ongoing challenge. Getting through downtown is hazardous. The corridor committee in conjunction with the university is trying to connect the Huckleberry through the middle of campus, Tech could help us there. We have some alleys on one side of downtown past the Baptist Church, behind The Cellar, and behind Church Street. Can we link that up to provide easier access? We are working on the Huckleberry to extend it to Brush Mountain. Bill Ellenbogen and Georgiana Snyder gave access so now the trail goes through Heritage Park. We are making headway, but the bottleneck is downtown. Any roadwork we do in this town should have a bike lane. For the most part, we are attempting to do that.

8. Downtown vacancies - Annie Kay’s holding on for write-offs. We need other incentives, like property taxes to go up if there is one year of vacancies, if two years go up again. Are these some issues like the Dillon Rule?

I have read those ordinances. There is very minimal regulation on businesses in this state. I am focusing on tools we have. Special services districts and we need to apply it before development happens. I am favor of pursuing that at the state level, but I am not sure we have a chance. The Chamber of Commerce spends money on lobbying the legislature and we don’t have a chance.

9. Here is a question that I am going to ask myself. Why are we spending $100,000 in fighting a big-box store?

I learned a lesson from my dad. You are only going to cause yourself more trouble if you back down from a bully. $100,000 is nothing compared to the ramifications some of our nicest neighborhoods have to contend with. If we spend $100,000 for a bridge over a creek in Heritage Park, we can spend $100,000 for all of the traffic and costs that will change. I am confident that is a wise investment. The goal was to get it to the Supreme Court. I am looking forward to it.

Contact me at donforblacksburg.org or http://donforblacksburg.org/ . I like citizen participation, keep it coming.