Wednesday, June 24th seemed to be a good day for publishing public notices in a local paper. These are the advertisements that appear in the Classified Section under the "Legal" category, as required by law.
One interesting comparison is a notice for Blacksburg started out in bold print: TOWN OF BLACKSBURG NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS. Sort of like the intent was to attract a reader's eye if the ads are casually scanned.
In contrast, the four notices for Christiansburg which ran the same day all began: PUBLIC NOTICE. Readers had to go further into the fine print to determine what this notice pertained to.
It is also interesting that the town's revamped website has no correlating posts showing this same information. Heck, once it's typed up for placement in a paid ad, why not roll it over and simply use it again? Maybe not all citizens take this local paper, or maybe many who do read it do not routinely read the classifieds?
The first advertised Public Notice was for a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting on July 2nd at 7:30. That isn't found on the website calendar, but applies to property at 265 Briarwood Road (off S. Franklin and Summit Ridge Road, along the interstate) to basically allow a garage to be converted to a residence (presumably a rental).
Two other notices relate to Public Hearings scheduled for July 7th, beginning at 7:30. One is actually a Joint Public Hearing for both the Town Council and its appointed Planning Commission to rezone property from B3-General Business to R2- Two-Family Residential. The tax parcel identification is listed instead of the physical address, possibly because it has no structure. A little research determines this is a lot on Plum Street between Montgomery and Church Streets, running parallel to Cambria, and the Planning Commission will discuss this at another meeting on July 6th at 4 pm. Council can be expected to take action on this request, after the Joint Public Hearing, at its July 21 meeting.
The other Public Hearing is to provide citizens an opportunity to comment on a newly created 2009 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Action Plan. The fourth public notice advertised on June 24th indicates this plan won't actually be available for public review until July 1, but promises copies of the materials will be provided via the town's website, at the Town Hall and in the county's Christiansburg library branch. This links back to discussion by council's Street Committee at the March 17th meeting, but is confusing because the posted minutes state this is a March 3 meeting (found at page four of four).
Devising a CDBG Action Plan is new territory for the town. In the past, they have basically forfeited these "entitlement" grant funds. It is doubtful that most citizens understand the process and will have little time to figure out where the plan may be viewed or is meant to provide. Still, it is a good start by Street Committee members Brad Stipes and Jim Vanhoozier and can become a real asset if aligned with expanded public transportation options. Heck, it is basically "free" money from HUD, when used as specified and high time for the town to be "bothered" with accessing it. Video links to a council meeting where this was discussed may be found here.