Fincastle Town Council will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 11 and the Botetourt Board of Supervisors will hold another public hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 23 to take citizen comments on a proposal that the two governments enter into a boundary adjustment agreement to enlarge the incorporated town.
Fincastle Town Council agreed in the summer to pursue the boundary adjustment, and formalized that decision when it set the public hearing date last month.
Fincastle Town Council offered a similar proposal in 2005 that the Board of Supervisors turned down on a 3-2 vote.
At the time, Fincastle did not have a town manager nor updated ordinances, and it was in the process of dealing with upgrading its sewage treatment plant.
Council held a community open house last week where citizens could look at a map of the proposed changes and talk with town officials about the proposal.
Town Manager David Tickner said about 50 people attended the open house. Most of the questions he fielded were about taxes. The town does not collect personal property or real estate taxes.
Under the proposal, geographically, the town would go from 151 acres to 1,381 acres.
An estimated 294 parcels, representing about 220 separate owners (residential and commercial), would be included in the boundary change. Eighteen of these parcels straddle the current town boundary. About 200 distinct and completely new residential and commercial property owners are included in the proposed change.
If approved, the boundary change would bring the town’s population from about 340 today to an estimated. 570 residents.
According to town officials, the proposed new boundary line will encompass the majority of the town’s established and planned water and sewer service areas. The town has a contract with the Western Virginia Water Authority to manage those services.
Town officials believe the boundary adjustment will allow the residents who come into the town limits the ability to better manage growth and revitalization in the existing town limits and in the new areas that would come into town along the US 220 corridor.
Town officials also says the change will allow better planning, management and coordination of water and sewer services, and will provide the town with a broader scope of input into commercial and residential development in and around the town’s existing boundary.
Also, residents affected by the boundary change would be able to serve on town commissions and run for election to council and/or mayor.
The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Friday morning to hold its public hearing. Tickner spoke briefly to the board about the request, and the supervisors agreed to go t o public hearing with little discussion.
The formal notice and a written description of the proposed boundary change is included in a legal advertisement in this week’s edition.
If approved by both Town Council and the Board of Supervisors following the public hearings, the proposed boundary agreement would go before the circuit court judge and would become effective when he or she enters an order establishing the new boundary.
The Town Council public hearing on January 11 is at 7 p.m. in the Old General District Courtroom in Fincastle.
The time for the Board of Supervisors public hearing on January 23 was not set.
