No two-hour commutes
Quality of life seen as big factor in boosting population growth

by Rod Belcher
for Virginia Business
September 2007

Economic development officials in Roanoke/New River Valley believe they have an intangible asset in competing for businesses and workers: the region’s high quality of life. “People love to come here,” says Wayne Strickland, executive director of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission. “Quality of life is a big motivator.”

That term covers a wide range of factors, including the natural beauty of the area’s mountains and valleys, its relatively low level of traffic congestion, the availability of good schools and higher education, good health care, and social and cultural amenities such as the arts. “The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce only recently started a ‘quality of life’ committee,” Strickland says. “It’s a key issue for many governments and businesses around here.”

Quality of life is big factor in officials’ efforts to increase the region’s population growth. “One of our big changes has been we are focusing more on growing the population and less on job creation,” says Phil Sparks, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership. “Currently Roanoke has a population growth rate of 0.5 percent. We are looking to grow that to 1.2 percent, compounded annually.”

Sparks says the partnership arrived at that figure after looking at several cities with sustainable rates of growth and finding that rate best insured a healthy economic future, without overheating and causing problems that detracted from Roanoke’s quality of life. “We don’t want two-hour commutes,” he says. “Like D.C. or Charlotte.”

Sparks says that by creating a high quality environment to work and live in, Roanoke will attract more people and retain more its young professionals.
Dr. Sabine O’Hara, president of Roanoke College, compared Roanoke’s quality of life to 10 other regions of similar size in a study done for the Roanoke Business Roundtable. Her study, released in February, give Roanoke high marks for its natural beauty and recreation opportunities. Its weak points, however, were factors contributing to an “urban feel,” including the presence of high-end retailers and a diverse collection of restaurants.

But Roanoke may soon overcome that weakness. Economic development officials have made recruiting high-end retailers a goal and have succeeded in landing two upscale supermarkets, The Fresh Market and Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc.

In addition, an increasing number of young professionals and empty nesters have been seeking loft apartments and condos in converted buildings downtown, encouraging the development of a growing night life. “There is definitely support for the concept of a 24-7 downtown,” says Tom McKeon, chair-elect for Downtown Roanoke Inc.

Downtown has seen an increase in residents in the past five years. “We’ve gone from less than a hundred to over 500. We’re focusing on trying to have 1,000 there in the next five years,” McKeon says.

Adding luster to downtown is the new Art Museum of Western Virginia. The dramatically designed, 81,000-square-foot museum is scheduled to open in fall 2008.

“I think a world-class museum and attractive urban living will get people to visit here for a few days,” says Sparks. “Many of those people will want to come back and live in the community, invest in the community and start new businesses here.”