The
Parks and Recreation Master Plan 1995-2005 is full of data that SHOULD have been used as crucial pieces of the Comprehensive Plan AND should be a part of decisions made by the Town Council. This is the closest thing to a legitimate study of what citizens want in the community as I have found thus far.
In particular, the research provided via this document, should be something the Town Council takes a long and hard look at when it decides where its Comprehensive Plan is failing and in making decisions about sidewalks and trails.
For instance:
Page 6: Bikeways: The Town of Christiansburg should develop a formal bikeway plan that should include access linkages to all major recreation sites such as College Street, Depot Street, and Wades Lane.
On Page 37: 322 Town residents responded to the Christianburg Public Opinion Survey. In order of preference only Swimming and Picnicking were ranked above Pleasure Walking and Fitness Walking. Ranked # 7 was Nature Walks, #11 Hiking, and #16 Jogging. (Positive responses to Baseball, Basketball, and other team or individual sports fell 20% or more behind Pleasure and Fitness Walking.
Page 44: (last paragraph) An increased demand for other activities, such as pleasure walking, jogging, bicycling, hiking, and mountain biking also exists among the residents of Christiansburg. The Town currently has little to offer people interested in these activities. The Town should actively pursue plans to develop more opportunities for pleasure walking, jogging, and bicycling. However, due to the tremendous availability of hiking and mountain biking opportunities within reasonable driving distance of Christiansburg, the Town's development of duplicate facilities would be a lower priority for capitalization.
Page 61: Park Connectors/Bikeways/Walkways: Park connectors, bikeways, and walkways are important means of recreation. The residents of the Town have expressed a growing interest in and desire for a bikeway/walkway system. In order to address these concerns the Town of Christiansburg should develop a formal bikeway plan that should include access linkages to all major recreation sites such as College Street, Depot Street, and Wades Lane. A formal bikeway plan is beyond the scope of this project, however, the parks master plan does take into account the need to connect the major park facilities within Town limits.
I am working on a much lengthier document to post on the website that will be addressing every time the words trail, sidewalk, or greenspace are used in the Comprehensive Plan. I've actually found all of those references (there just aren't that many), but I have to run through some additional information. However, I can tell you right now that what I have found does not support what citizens have indicated they want in this area.
The most crucial part of a Comprehensive Plan Review is to evaluate that plan to determine if the goals are being met. With what I've found thus far, this is going to be a very long process. It may well be easier to start all over, particularly since the information obtained from citizens was not based upon the goals and criteria of a comprehensive plan which should ask citizens about the type of future they want to see, rather it was a citizen satisfaction survey designed to assess how happy citizens are with things "today" (which in this instance refers to data collected in 1998!!!). Somebody really dropped the ball in helping the Planning Commission understand what the goal of a comprehensive plan is. Somebody dropped an even bigger ball by NOT ALLOWING CITIZEN PARTICIPATION by using inadequate tools to elicit information from citizens.