BLACKSBURG, Va. – Tuesday night, Blacksburg Town Council approved a rezoning amendment 5-1 to bring 73 townhomes where the old Blacksburg High School was. That number is down from the originally planned 111 units.
“It was originally a rezoning in 2019″ said Michael Sutphin, vice mayor of Blacksburg. “We made several changes Tuesday night, the biggest are reduction in density from 100 [units] to 73 [units].”
I met with the vice mayor of Blacksburg to talk about the approval and he said he hopes these townhomes will be able to alleviate some of the housing stress in town.
“Across the whole spectrum we need additional housing in the Town of Blacksburg and this helps meet some of those needs,” Sutphin said.
Not every member in town wanted the change, though.
The newest council member in the town, Liam Watson, said he has some reservations on the new approval, like the potential price point of these townhomes.
“I was really weighing either fewer units that are more expensive or more units that are less expensive,” Watson said. “I initially heard with the current PR those townhomes would have been starting at $350,000 to $400,000 which isn’t great, but it’s much better than what it’s going to be starting at now. I’ve heard $650,000.”
He said his worry is that these townhomes will become what they call “Football Homes,” homes where they are only occupied during Virginia Tech athletic events by alumni.
The vice mayor said while he understands the concern, he is hopeful the rules set in place by the developer help to avoid this.
“I think in this project, there’s been a good faith effort to prevent that from happening, especially with the affidavit and HOA regulations that the developer put forward,” Sutphin said.
They said the fields in front of the old high school will not be affected.
As of now, there is no timeline set for this project to start.