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Blowing Rock Hosting Final Highway 321 Visioning Workshop on Tuesday

By Nathan Ham

Tuesday is the final chance for citizens to provide their own personal input to the town of Blowing Rock for how the Valley Boulevard/Highway 321 corridor should look in the future. 

Earlier this year, the Town of Blowing Rock formed an Ad Hoc Committee to study the portion of Highway 321/Valley Boulevard that travels through the town. The Town also hired Benchmark Planning to assist the committee in creating a vision for how Highway 321 should look. Much of the feedback provided should be focused around land uses, landscaping and beautification, site design, building design, and community appearance.

The first meeting was held on October 15 and the final meeting will take place this Tuesday, October 29 at Blowing Rock Town Hall.

Benchmark Planning has two nationwide offices in Charlotte and St. Louis and specializes in comprehensive planning, economic development, urban design, public participation and military planning. They have worked in several major cities and small towns in North Carolina specifically. Some of the locations include larger cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham and High Point and smaller locations like Weaverville, Elkin, Yadkinville, Marshall, Bessemer City, Pilot Mountain, Mount Airy, Troutman, Smithfield and Mount Pleasant.

Many of these projects are similar to what they will be doing in Blowing Rock, focusing on comprehensive design plans and studies that will best benefit the town socially and economically.