By Taylor Boyd
Residents voiced their opinions on the future of Patrick County during a March 10 Planning Commission public input session.
The meeting was held in partnership with the commission and the West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC), which will help write the updated comprehensive plan.
Planning Commission member Sarah Wray said the comprehensive plan is the county’s shared roadmap for the future.
“Input from the community is essential to making sure this plan truly reflects what residents want to see in the years ahead,” she said.
At the session, boards were placed throughout the room with questions, asking residents what they valued most about the county, what they’d like to see differently, where they think development should occur, and what they’d like to see the county prioritize.
Residents wrote their answers on sticky notes and anonymously placed the answers on the board.
WPPDC Senior Planner Joseph Bonanno said the organization will take the answers received during the session and develop some draft priorities, goals, and strategies.
“I think that that’s one of the big pieces, at least from my perspective, that I’m real excited about, is how do we create a plan that has action. Like what are going to be our goals? What are our priorities? How are we actually going to turn that into action so it isn’t just a book that sits on a shelf somewhere,” she said.
Wray said the goal is for the comprehensive plan to be a guiding document that county leaders can look at for guidance.
“A big cornerstone for the process is community input,” Bonanno said, and added there are plans to hold another public input session sometime in the summer.
“We’re going to take the information we’ve gathered today and start forming some goals and strategies. That will kind of be the next step for the next meeting; it will be a little more specific,” he said.
The goal is to have the updated comprehensive plan ready for review by the Patrick County Board of Supervisors by the fall.
Wray said the hope is the board adopts it by the end of the year.
“We’re trying to kind of build in a month or two if we have to do any revisions or take in any feedback, but the update is supposed to be done by the end of 2026,” she said.
According to Virginia law, the comprehensive plan must be reviewed every five years.
“We had an existing one for many, many years, and I think when I moved home, probably about 2015-2016, we were still operating under the 1999 comprehensive plan. They did a big update in 2021” to the plan, “which is good, but life has changed a lot since COVID,” Wray said.
Resident Input
Larry Vernon said he believes the county’s biggest priority should be the installation of the stoplight at the intersection of U.S. Route 58, South Mayo River, and Spring Road in Patrick Springs.
“Before somebody gets killed out there. Sometimes you wait and wait and wait,” he said.
With the U.S. expansion project nearing completion in the Meadows of Dan area, Vernon believes the property near the intersection would be an ideal location for a truck stop or restaurant.
“I’d like to see something at that intersection, but it’d just cause more traffic. We need the stoplight,” Vernon said.
Alisha Denny also believes stoplights and other infrastructure projects should be a priority.
“We’re excited about (US) 58 coming through, but I think maybe some infrastructure to help build the tourism as it’s coming through. Then with that, upgrading the waterlines and everything so we can get some businesses to expand out 58,” she said.
Denny also believes working to add another grocery story to the area should be a priority and potentially shifting the Farmers’ Market opening days to Saturdays instead of Fridays should be considered “so we have access to that when we’re not working.”
Priorities listed on the board included short-term rental housing, expansion of indoor and outdoor recreation, childcare options, infrastructure expansions, affordable housing, and adding employment opportunities to the county.
