Good morning, Blacksburg.

In today's Blacksburg Connect:

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📸 Correction

Yesterday we swapped the two school zone camera locations. The correct pairing:

Everything else in that item stands. The warning period ends today. Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 9, driving 11 mph or more over the posted limit in either active school zone results in a $100 civil citation. Four cameras, two per location. Program details and FAQs

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Montgomery County Sheriff Robert G. Page paused the sheriff's office's four Flock license plate reader cameras on Thursday, Sept. 3, and is forming a committee to review the program. (WDBJ)

In his statement, Page said he supports the technology and has seen it help investigate crimes, locate abducted juveniles, find stolen vehicles and missing persons, and apprehend fugitives. He also said residents' concerns about it are legitimate and that public safety includes public confidence in how the sheriff's office operates.

The review committee will be made up of local officials and community leaders. Page said it will examine the office's current policies and practices, including the technology's effectiveness, impact on public safety, privacy protections, data access, costs and existing safeguards. The pause holds while that work goes on.

What Flock cameras do. They are mounted along roadways and photograph publicly visible features of passing vehicles — license plate, make, model, bumper stickers. The data is encrypted and stored in Amazon Web Services GovCloud, where law enforcement can search it during investigations. Under state law, images are deleted after 21 days. Flock, based in Atlanta, works with more than 6,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.

This is not just Montgomery County. Christiansburg stopped using Flock earlier this summer. So did Floyd, Giles, Bland, Halifax and Henry counties, along with Harrisonburg and the town of Elkton. On Sept. 3 alone, the Lynchburg City Council voted 6–0 to begin ending its contract and the sheriffs in Montgomery, Amherst and Bedford counties all announced they were stopping. Cardinal News counts at least 20 Virginia localities that have paused, canceled or declined to renew since July.

And it may reach Richmond. Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield County, has said he'll introduce legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session to ban Flock cameras statewide.

Two neighborhoods are selling homes in town right now at prices well below the local market: Stroubles Ridge off Merrimac Road and the Airport Acres Townhomes off Airport Road. The average single-family home in Blacksburg runs above $450,000. These start around $235,000.

They are the visible result of about a decade of work, and it's worth knowing how the town got here.

A short history. In 2015, Blacksburg committed $1.5 million to a five-year acquisition-rehab pilot in the Bennett Hill/Progress Street neighborhood, turning seven rental properties into owner-occupied homes with 99-year resale restrictions. In 2022 the Town Council and the Board of Supervisors approved a bigger idea: a community land trust. The New River Home Trust launched in 2023, run by Community Housing Partners, the Christiansburg-based nonprofit that has built affordable housing across the Southeast since 1975.

The trust's first home sold in September 2023 for nearly $100,000 below market — closing in the low $200,000s when comparable homes nearby were going for the mid-$300,000s.

How a land trust works. A standard deed conveys the house and the land under it together. A land trust separates the two. The trust holds the land and sells you the home. Taking the land out of the purchase price is what brings the number down.

When you sell, a resale formula sets the price so the next family gets the same opportunity, and the affordability holds for 99 years. You build equity as an owner; the house stays reachable for the person after you.

🏘️ Stroubles Ridge — Merrimac Road, west side of town. New single-family homes with three bedrooms and two and a half baths, built to Net Zero Ready standards with modular construction, which holds costs down and keeps energy bills low. The 24-acre site was brought inside the town boundary in 2021 specifically to make this possible, and the town put $2 million in Community Development Block Grant funding behind it. CHP broke ground in 2024. Homes are starting around $235,000. Every home in the neighborhood goes into the trust.

🏘️ Airport Acres Townhomes — off Airport Road, built by Habitat for Humanity of the New River Valley. Eleven two-story Craftsman-style townhomes with three bedrooms, covered front porches and a shared green space down the middle. Several are built accessible for mobility needs and aging in place. Funding came from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and the Town of Blacksburg, plus Habitat capital campaigns and in-kind donations. Habitat has specifically invited teachers, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, healthcare workers and other service professionals to apply — people who work here and have had a hard time living here. The homes are within walking distance of schools, healthcare and transit.

Who qualifies. Households at or under 80% of Area Median Income — roughly $67,000 for one person and about $95,700 for a household of four. The current table is at newriverhometrust.org/income-limits. The application is free, takes a few basic financial documents, and CHP says eligibility usually comes back within about 48 hours.

There's more behind it. The town also runs a $4 million Affordable Housing Development Fund seeded with American Rescue Plan Act money, aimed at builders and developers adding to the supply. Montgomery County's first-time homebuyer program can help with down payment and closing costs on top of all this.

Kim Thurlow, the town's Housing and Community Connections Manager, said the two projects are aimed at "supporting economic mobility and strengthening the fabric of our community.”

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