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A neighborhood meeting was held yesterday in the William H. Brown building of the Blacksburg Police Department. It was hosted by the town of Blacksburg and Dan Lovern, director of operations for Grand Avenue Development for Arby's.

“There's going to be an upgrade in this location from what you are normally used to seeing with Arby's,” Lovern said. “This will be an all-brick structure, there will be more glass in this structure.”

Lovern explained to the crowd that there will be high walls surrounding the air conditioning and other mechanical structures in the back of the restaurant. This, according to Lovern, will help preserve the view shed of the area.

The community members in attendance inquired about pedestrian access to the property. It was reiterated that a walkway will come in from the sidewalk on Main Street to the Arby's lot and that any additional walkways added by the town will tie in to the structured landscape.

Down-cast lighting will allow for a control within the Arby's parking lot. No light pollution will be allowed to seep onto neighboring sites. A back entrance will allow for mall-goers to enter the restaurant without having to exit onto Main Street and reenter the site.

Free WiFi will make this Arby's a hotspot in Blacksburg. Lovern joked that the Arby's corporation was 'waiting to see if this caught on' before they added it to their restaurants.

Due to previous concern by council regarding noise pollution from outside speakers, Lovern made sure to clearly point out that Arby's has one, outside, directional speaker. According to him, you can hear the speaker from inside the car but it will be virtually soundless from 15 to 20 feet away.

All-in-all, citizens seemed pleased with the explanations and are looking forward to the potential Arby's in Blacksburg. Some, however, are still concerned about why the Sonic special use permit was denied. They plan to address council at their next meeting.

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written by citizenK, July 11, 2008

Restaurant (typo as opposed/as listed)

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Arby's request
written by citizenK, July 10, 2008

I'm amazaed that simple restuarants are, sometimes, denied permits. I guess Sonic didn't "buy-in." Free-Enterprise in America?...no parity, sometimes. I've never "heard" an order-speaker from over 2-3 feet (IF that!), let alone the 15'mentioned. Residents are being pro-active, and I'm glad about that. But, the same few often are the loudest(from 15'?). If Blacksburg residents want business (I know, many would rather not have any; leave vehicle oil-drippings and add to other locales' traffic problems) especially tourism, pro-active residents should be comprehensive in their efforts, see that the very dirty sidewalks of downtown are cleaned, and look at the "big-picture." Residents should patrol the downtown area, document findings, and happily rave about the findings, I hope. I'm talking about tax-bases here, let alone, sanity and sanitization! It's all related,whether across town or downtown. Sound pollution?...let's consider "curb appeal" and health-related considerations, first.

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