1 week Ago
The small lot ordinance the town is considering would reduce square footage requirements for areas of town zoned as “R-4” districts, changing the size from 10,000 square feet minimum to 3,000. The proposed ordinance was praised by members of council during a work session on Tuesday, with member Jerry Ford describing it as a major step toward addressing Blacksburg’s lack of housing. “A density increase like this would be huge for our housing crunch,” Ford said.
The ordinance has a few caveats attached to the development of properties, including a provision that residents be limited to “family plus one,” or single-family occupancy plus one unrelated person. Ford said that in recent public discussions, people who live in R-4 districts were particularly concerned about seeing this point emphasized. Councilman Liam Watson said that he hoped the ordinance would lead to further zoning changes in the future.
“This is a promising first step, and I hope we’ll be able to consider further measures to address things like infill housing in the future,” Watson said. Ford said that the council was waiting to see how the small-lot ordinance was received, but said it may be a “proof of concept,” for further zoning changes. Watson also said that, to his mind, no one who has written to him about the ordinance has said anything negative about it, to which the rest of the council agreed that the feedback so far has been nearly all positive.
The ordinance provides for several different types of residences, including townhouses, though the language in the ordinance specifies that townhouses built on small lots can “only be serviced by alley access,” without entrances facing roadways. A community discussion on the project will be at 6:30 p.m.
on Sept. 26, at the Blacksburg Community Center. The measure could be voted on by the council in mid-November.
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