July 14, 2023

Blowing Rock Civic Association’s Suggestions for the Town of Blowing Rock 2024 Comprehensive Plan

• The 2014 Comprehensive Plan is a solid, well thought out document that provides a strong foundation to revisit and build upon.

• Many of the current concerns that were addressed in the 2014 plan with actionable steps that should be strongly considered. We believe, however, that given the immense growth since the 2014 plan, data sets that substantially lag and undercount that growth and conditions that lead to exceptions being granted, adoption of a guiding principle is warranted in the next plan.
• The results of an annual survey sent this spring by the Blowing Rock Civic Association to Blowing Rock registered voters and homeowners is on an attached document, and the opinions of local people (69.32% of whom are locally registered voters) align with the following primary areas of concern:

• Update the downtown development code to include preservation of Main Street character, green space, and conforming in general to existing surrounding development (in contrast to at least one project under construction). This aligns with the Development and Connectivity Plan Themes.  59.55 % of survey respondents included in their top 3 issues.
• Implement transportation ambulance service to improve response time to meet the national norm of 9 minutes, 90% of the time 24 hours a day. This aligns with the Municipal Services Plan Theme. 56.18% respondents included in their top 3 issues.
• Protect neighborhoods by continuing to limit Short Term Rentals to the defined districts and enforce this limit.  This aligns with the Development Plan Theme. 44.38% of respondents included in their top 3 issues.
• Prioritize capital spending for the town to include necessities, such as addressing road improvements and drainage problems, improving water quality and quantity to provide consistency in service, and replacing and repairing aging sewer facilities, prior to spending on non-necessities. This aligns with the Municipal Services Plan Theme. 42.70% of respondents included in their top 3 issues.
• Address downtown parking problems.  This aligns with the Downtown and Connectivity Plan Theme.  19.66% of respondents included this in their top 3 issues.