Future HopeTree developments, affordable housing and pedestrian safety were discussed between three of Salem’s candidates for city council on Tuesday night — Mayor Renee Turk-I, councilman Jim Wallace-R; and Anne Marie Green-I. John Saunders was unable to attend.
Those four candidates are running for three available seats on council.
Here are some takeaways from the night:
The HopeTree development is still an active discussion, and more public hearings are to come
In June, Salem City Council voted 3-2 to approve a rezoning that would allow for commercial and residential uses in 32 acres of HopeTree Family Services land that they’re looking to sell to a developer. This prompted lawsuits from three neighboring households who claimed the process was not completed according to local and state code.
Turk voted for the rezoning in June, and she said she is still in approval of the development and the rezoning. She said the developers are planning to save 10 of 11 historic buildings onsite. She also said she’s heard concerns of a hotel being built, which she said will not happen.
Wallace was against the rezoning in June and said he still is. He said his concern is that he doesn’t know what the developments will entail.
More public hearings are to come, he said after the forum, because the developer resubmitted the zoning application. He said in the forum the council has “compressed” the schedule and that “it’s really important to let the process play out at a natural pace.” He said he thinks it’s being “hurried up” to be dealt with before the new council takes over.
Green, who has over 30 years of experience in local government, said she doesn’t think the property is a good place for the planned unit development zoning. She doesn’t think the streets leading up to the development are going to be adequate for the traffic she said it will bring.
Discussion includes whether Salem needs more housing, and ways to look at the affordability issue
The housing affordability crisis, Wallace said, cannot be solved by the local government — federal inflationary spending caused it over the past four to five years, he said.
“What we can do to make our houses more affordable is we can improve our schools, increase our economic development activities, to recruit more businesses to Salem, have a better-educated workforce that can fill the jobs of those companies and earn a higher and better wage and therefore afford houses in Salem.” He said he thinks Salem is already building enough housing to last the next 5-10 years with current developments.
Turk said Salem needs to be “open-minded” about what kinds of housing should go in the city’s neighborhoods. She said affordability comes down to having less square footage and that duplexes and townhouses might be the answer for some families.
Green also noted that affordable housing is going to be smaller than what Salem has seen built recently. She said the high-rise Valleydale Apartments are “not affordable.”
All three candidates are in support of livestreaming city council meetings and making them available afterward
Green was the public information officer in Roanoke County when RVTV, Roanoke Valley Television, was introduced, she said. RVTV records Roanoke City Council and Roanoke County Board of Supervisors meetings, which are livestreamed and available on Facebook after the meetings.
“It was a big deal then. It was hard, it was expensive, it was difficult,” she said. She gestured to the Cardinal News events person livestreaming the candidate forum and said, “As we see right here tonight, none of that is true anymore.”
Turk said she had talked about this idea in 2020 and “for some reason, it still hasn’t happened.” She said it’s important for citizens who can’t be there to see and hear what’s going on, and “it’s part of the democratic process.”
Wallace is in support of livestreaming the council meetings, but he thinks the work sessions would be more important for citizens to see.
“What happens during the formal council meeting has pretty much already been decided,” he said. “…The real action happens in the work sessions.”
Salem needs to prioritize pedestrian safety
“There’s a book of children’s poetry called ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends,’” Green said. “It could have been written about Salem.”
She said she’s almost been hit by a car many times, and the police department needs to be enforcing the pedestrian right-of-way.
Wallace said he’d like to see the greenways connected to neighborhoods in a “safe manner” and noted the importance of bringing in economic development to pay for these improvements — “it’s not inexpensive.”
Turk would like to see pedestrian safety worked into the budget to create more crosswalks.
“We’ve got to be sure that we’re setting aside the amount of money that we can use on a consistent basis,” she said.
