Multiple times, I have heard during the Town Council meetings that traffic studies supplied by VDOT or stormwater studies show that proposed development will have no negative impact on existing developments, storms, creeks, etc.
What I haven't heard is one or more Town Council member(s) asking to see the data or asking for the specifics of that data like:
1. When was that study done?
2. What times of day were involved in the study?
3. Does the data include all of the developments/buildings/shopping centers that are currently within the area?
4. If old data, does it accurately reflect the current status of traffic patterns, stormwater management, etc?
5. Does the data include information/projections based on other developments/buildings/shopping centers that the town has on a backburner?
Simply based on the Town Council, Planning Commission meetings and the historical minutes of those meetings, there is no way to determine the answer to these questions. Any documents used are certainly not available on the Town's website. Nor, are they available on my website because apparently, those types of studies are not presented to the Town Council as they were not provided by the Town in my FOIA request for documentation of the Town Council Meetings nor are they mentioned in any of the minutes.
It seems the Town Manager may be the only person who has information on these issues.
Maybe it is time to start looking for someone with an environmental background to serve on the Town Council. Maybe it is time for Town Council to start asking some questions about data and the source of the data.
What the Town Council doesn't know can hurt you and the Town. What the Town Council doesn't know can't be used to hold the Town Manager accountable. If you don't know, how can you hold Town Council accountable? There is a lot of potential for misuse of power and a great display of 'smoke and mirrors' with this kind of setup. Once again it is that issue of spirit vs. letter of the law. You have to dig deep to find out if issues are being minimally addressed. For instance, I would love to see the traffic study done with the aquatic center in mind. How long ago was it performed? Is the same study being used to authorize other projects without taking into consideration the impact of the Aquatic Center (this is just an example of how to look at these data sources).
(Of course, you could start by checking out some of the VDOT information available online:
Christiansburg 2007 Study or
Blacksburg 2007 Study. (It took all of 3 1/2 minutes via google search to find these.)
Or check out VDOT's current
Traffic Impact Analysis Regulations (interesting that Blacksburg projects can be found but none for Christiansburg...hope that is because none of the Christiansburg projects meet the criteria). This took a bit longer to find because I stopped for lunch:)