Communities throughout Virginia are struggling with how increase the supply of affordable housing, while keeping their quality of life. That conversation is reaching fever pitch in Floyd County.
County leaders are considering a new ordinance in hopes of boosting housing supply. They're collecting input feedback this week on proposed changes to the county subdivision ordinance, which regulates how land can be divided for housing and other purposes. Some residents worry the changes could open up the rural county to rampant development.
Lydeana Martin is Floyd County's community and economic development director. She says this process started in 2019, when the board launched a committee to streamline the current ordinance, which was adopted in 2001 during a multi-year drought.
"The current document is confusing at best," Martin says.
As it's written, the current ordinance restricts subdivisions to parcels of land along public roads, and includes requirements for surveying and percolation testing for soil drainage. The proposed ordinance loosens some of those requirements. It allows subdivisions along newly built private roads, and for the division of up to 10 lots. The first version was floated earlier this year, and received pushback from county residents during a previous public hearing. The county made some revisions. But Martin says people still don't entirely understand the proposal.
"I think there's been some misunderstanding of the proposed ordinance, that it's intended to open up Floyd County to development and pave over paradise," Martin says. "That's the opposite I think of this. A lot of work has gone into this to try to thread the needle, if you will, on maintain our farmland and rural character while at the same time trying to address our lack of housing lots in the county, even smaller lots for business needs."
And there is a need for more housing. The county's population has climbed from fewer than 10,000 people in 1970 to more than 15,000 now, but that number has been relatively flat since 2010.
Meanwhile, the Floyd Group – a community Facebook group with about the same number of members as the county has people – is full of posts from people looking for places to rent or buy. And housing prices have soared. Martin cites a survey of local businesses.
"The number one issue they wanted the county to address is more housing options," Martin says.
They saw a similar response from a survey of more than 400 county residents.
"While we all love our rural space and our character and we want to take care of our natural resources and water, there's also widespread understanding that something has to change in terms of housing because young families or young people cannot afford to live here," Martin says. "So the subdivision ordinance can't solve all of that, but the simple increasing in the supply of parcels should help with the cost situation on simple economic basis."
Of the five members of the board of supervisors, two didn't reply to requests for comments. The two realtors on the board, Levi Cox of Locust Grove and Linda DeVito of Little River districts, both declined to comment.
Kalinda Bechtold represents the Indian Valley district. In June she lost in the Republican primary for the seat, but she's on the board until the end of the year – long enough to vote on the proposal. And she says, her constituents aren't happy with it.
"My people want Floyd to stay Floyd," Bechtold says. "The ones who would suffer most from over-development are the ones that are quietest, but they're the ones who are most concerned about having too many houses and crowded streets. "
Bechtold says this proposal is better than what's on the books now. But she doesn't like it either.
"I don't want Floyd County to become overdeveloped," Bechtold says. "We don't want to become Asheville We don't want to become a community where it's housing everywhere. Our history and our culture is farming and music. If that's gone, Floyd's gone."
The Floyd County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the proposed ordinance at 6 pm Tuesday.
