Boones Mill 2040 comprehensive plan to direct town’s growth and development
Franklin County, Virginia – Boones Mill Town Council recently adopted the Boones Mill 2040 comprehensive plan to direct the town’s growth and development in the coming years and decades. The new plan is a significant overhaul of the former plan, which was adopted in 2015, and provides more detailed proposals and ideas to help readers understand the town’s direction better.
The town’s manager, B.T. Fitzpatrick, said that work began on the new comprehensive plan just over a year ago. The finalized plan was approved by the council and presents four priority initiatives that include business development, improvements to U.S. 220, creation of various housing types, and preservation of historic structures while demolishing existing structures beyond reasonable remediation. Fitzpatrick said that the priorities were determined based on public input provided at three public meetings held in February and March of last year, which were attended by a considerable number of residents.
Boones Mill is one of the few areas in Franklin County that has experienced measurable growth in the past decade, and planning for future growth is essential. The town grew from 239 residents in its 2010 U.S. census to 259 residents in the 2020 census. Therefore, the comprehensive plan would be instrumental in achieving the town’s growth objectives, as it would enable the town to apply for grants to fund some of the proposed priorities.
The new comprehensive plan is designed to be visually informative and filled with diagrams and graphs to help readers understand the proposals better. Fitzpatrick said that two of the projects listed in the plan that could benefit from grant funding are the proposal for a new stoplight on U.S. 220 to improve traffic flow and an emergency light for traffic at the Boones Mill Fire and Rescue Department located on U.S. 220. The emergency light would enable fire and rescue vehicles to exit onto U.S. 220 safely.
To access the complete comprehensive plan, interested parties can find it on the town’s website at townofboonesmill.org.
