Blacksburg candidates debate housing shortage

This has been updated to correct information on two candidates that had been reversed.

Blacksburg is a town in demand and not just a destination point — a permanent stop.

If they could only afford it.

Coupled with a shortage of off-campus housing for Virginia Tech and concern is compounded into a crisis.

The five candidates running for three available seats on the town council, as well as the two men vying to be the new mayor, acknowledge that the housing shortage, which is compounded by a lack of affordable homes, is a problem in need of solving.

Mayor: Two candidates seek to succeed incumbent, who is retiring

“Certainly, affordability and addressing the housing needs for our town are some of the most important things we’ve done,” said Vice Mayor Michael Sutphin, who is running to fill the seat being vacated by outgoing Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith. “… We’ve done a lot of work in that area. We’ve looked at different zoning changes as well.”

Sutphin’s opponent, Pete Macedo, agrees that housing must be addressed, but disagrees with how the council has addressed the challenge. When the council voted 4-3 to allow an eight-story student housing project on North Main Street that its developer says will include some first-floor commercial space and 759 bedrooms, Macedo questioned the transparency provided by the council prior to casting their votes.

Macedo, who owns and operates Blacksburg Bagels and has been a resident of the town for more than 30 years, said he and several other small business owners and residents who live in the vicinity of the proposed project tried to share information and concerns with the council. But he believes there were communication breakdowns.

“As a community we were trying to do our best to give the town council as much information as we could so they could make the best decision possible,” said Macedo, who hoped that council would at least tweak a proposal that, in his opinion, was flawed.

“There were some missing pieces — sort of a lack of explanation and things weren’t adding up,” he said.

While his work did not result in the decision he wanted, Macedo said many of his friends, and even people he did not know, liked how he approached the issue and encouraged him to consider running for mayor.

“I have been approached in the past about running for council, but that was not something that interested me,” he said. “But then this time, someone said ‘No, you need to run for mayor.’ And I said ‘OK, why?’

“And their answer was that the mayor sets the tone, and right now the tone is one of distrust and the community gets the perception that … they’re being dismissed from interacting, and it’s discouraging.”

Sutphin, who was one of the four council members to vote yes on the project, acknowledges that he and Macedo disagree on the issue, but believes all city officials — elected and unelected — were transparent throughout the process.

On the project, Sutphin said: “I believe it’s in a location that makes sense. If you can’t build student housing across the street from the Virginia Tech campus, there’s not really anymore locations where you can.”

On transparency, Sutphin believes the council has worked hard to be up front with the public. He said all meetings are streamed live and all documents that are part of council meetings are shared on the town’s website.

“I do think there’s more that we can do to get the word out about the work we’re doing,” he said. “I hear from some folks that they didn’t know something was happening, so we need to continue to work on that.”

Sutphin has two years left on his current term, so win or lose, he will still be part of the council. If he wins, the council will have two months to fill the vacant position by appointment. He said when Hager-Smith decided to step down, he saw this as his best opportunity to move over a couple of seats during meetings.

“I have a lot of experience that I believe I can bring to the position,” said Sutphin, who was first elected to the council in 2011 and has since been re-elected three more times. “Also, there’s an opportunity. … Right now, there’s an opening. I think I have a lot to bring to the table — certainly my experience, my perspective of living here.”

Town Council: Five candidates seek three seats

For the three council seats up for election, two incumbents, Susan Anderson and Lauren Colliver, are seeking re-election.

The other three candidates on the ballot are Virginia Tech contract specialist, union activist and community organizer Darryl Campbell, teacher and community advocate Joel Goodhart and James Harder, who is an external engagement project manager at Virginia Tech.

Anderson, who was first elected in 2006, is running for a sixth term, while Colliver, who is going for her third term, first joined the council in 2018. With Susan Mattingly opting to leave council at the end of the year, that means there will be at least one new member joining.

Anderson said that if she wins another term, she will continue her drive to promote shared community values, high quality of life for residents, smart growth, abundant recreational opportunities and openness in government with active citizen participation.

On her candidate website, Anderson emphasizes her commitment to downtown redevelopment and revitalization. She lists more than a dozen downtown-related projects she said she has helped proceed in the last 18 years, including serving as chair of the Downtown Revitalization Committee early in her town council career.

She said during the candidates’ forum in late August that she has a “keen understanding of the processes and complexity of town government.”

“I have a broad experience as a leader, as a facilitator and a consensus builder and a grassroots activist in a wide range of civic organizations,” Anderson said. “I am passionate about what I believe is right and am also a good listener.”

Colliver and Anderson have mutually endorsed each other’s re-election bids, and both cast no votes on the North Main Street project that Sutphin supported.

Colliver, who owns a small business in Blacksburg, wrote on social media this summer that she had delayed making a decision on running for a third term due to family reasons. But those problems were finally resolved — her husband’s employment situation was solidified — and she then entered the race. She says she is a leader who “listens, builds bridges and believes in the power of community.”

“Serving on town council isn’t about titles and politics,” she said. “It’s about people. It’s listening, learning and rolling up our sleeves to do the work.”

All three challengers listed variations of affordable housing initiatives as part of their platforms as well.

Harder is an advocate for more housing and avoiding legal pitfalls that have blocked building in the past and prevented families who want to move to Blacksburg from doing so. Harder also wants the town to accelerate clean energy adaptation, grow cultural and educational opportunities and work more closely with neighboring governments, such as the school board, board of supervisors, and the town of Christiansburg, in order to reach goals that are important to everyone throughout the county.

He says he would be a leader who “prioritizes families, supports businesses and plans for smart growth,” and one of his primary causes would be promoting greater economic development — and looking for ways that would connect this idea with the university.

“There are students here who have entrepreneurial ideas and would like to bring those ideas to market while they are here,” he said. “If we were able to provide resources to make that possible here, … maybe we could get them to stay (after graduation) and build businesses that might grow here.”

Campbell said the council “needs a new lens to look at things through,” and his focus would be on the working citizens of the town. As part of the local chapter of the United College Workers leadership, Campbell said has demonstrated he has the experience to be a communicator who excels at being the bridge between the council and the community when the sharing of information is needed.

“There seems to be a disconnect from town council to getting the word out to the community,” Campbell said during the forum. “Let me be the one that leads the town council in letting other people know what’s going on. … I have the time to do that and I have had to make difficult decisions time and time again. I will be glad to do it for the Town of Blacksburg.”

His primary issues are less expensive housing, supporting small businesses and transparency.

Goodhart, who until recently worked as a technology teacher in the Montgomery County Public Schools, said he has curtailed his work responsibilities to spend more time with his young family and is involved with several civic groups, including the town’s housing committee, the New River Valley Bicycle Association and Strong Towns Blacksburg, which focuses on building financially resilient and sustainable communities

He said the primary planks to his platform are connection, resilience and livability.

On the housing issue, he said the town not only needs to encourage building, but also relax many of the town’s zoning and land use policies to allow more types of housing. He is also an advocate of creating more self-sustaining and livable neighborhoods and believes this can be achieved in part by creating safer walking and biking routes and making public transportation more accessible for a larger number of residents.

“Blacksburg is a wonderful place to live, to grow up, to study, to raise a family and to grow old,” Goodhart said. “… My goal is to maintain that spirit as we grow, so we can leave this legacy of Blacksburg for future generations.”