Salem City Council candidates talk affordable housing, small business

Three of the four candidates running to fill three seats on the Salem City Council gathered for a forum Friday morning to share their visions and priorities.

The Salem-Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted the forum at the Salem Library. Candidates Renée Turk, Jim Wallace and Anne Marie Green attended the forum; the fourth candidate, John Saunders, was unable to attend due to a medical condition. Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, and Del. Joe McNamara, R-Roanoke County, came to watch the forum.

One of the most common topics in Salem this election season is the controversial HopeTree development and the council's decision to allow it to move forward. When moderator Gene Marrano of WFIR asked the candidates about affordable housing, the development came up. Turk, the city's current mayor, voted in favor of the development, while Wallace, who is the current vice mayor in Salem, voted against it. Green is not on the council, but has expressed that she is not in favor of the development.

Turk said that her decision to vote in favor of the HopeTree planned unit district was made after months of meetings with citizens, the city council, the planning commission and HopeTree.

"I based my decision on a lot of great things that could happen at HopeTree," Turk said. "If we left it the way it was, if we left it residential single-family, worst-case scenario, they could be 600-square-foot homes. They would have a 75-foot front and a 120-foot depth. They could pack a bunch of little houses in there, save no specific amount of green space. There could have been a lot of things – we as a city had no control over what was going to go in there."

Wallace voted against the HopeTree plan because he felt the council didn't know exactly what it was voting to allow since the plans for the development were not concrete. On the general topic of housing, he said that he doesn't think Salem has a lack of it and that the solution to affordable housing is economic development.

"If we're going to help these kids afford houses, we need to get our schools stronger, our economic development stronger, so we can recruit more businesses to create high-paying jobs so that our students or young people have a good paying job and can afford the houses that we have," he said.

Affordable housing is an issue across the entire Roanoke Valley, Green said. Many people may work in Salem but live elsewhere in the area or vice versa, she said. Green, who is the president of the Council of Community Services in Roanoke, said that the homeless population in the area is a direct impact of the lack of affordable housing.

"I'm afraid it's going to take some government help to get affordable housing," she said. "Maybe some kind of subsidies, tax breaks, et cetera – something creative that we're going to have to do, because developers can't afford on their own to build affordable housing."

The candidates were asked what they think are the biggest issues Salem will face over the next four years.

Infrastructure in the city is something that will need attention, Wallace said. The city needs to figure out what to do with its aging infrastructure, which it has a lot of, he said. He gave the example of the Salem Civic Center.

"We have the civic center, which is obviously aging out, but what does the civic center need to become? I don't know that answer right now. Should it become more of a performing arts center, more of a conference center, or more of a sports arena?" Wallace said.

Economic development would help the city pay for these projects without raising taxes, as it can rely more on businesses to generate revenue, Wallace said.

"We're going to get there," he said. "We're making progress. Salem will remain vibrant, but that's why economic development is so important."

Green said that the city needs to keep trying to attract younger families to live there. The city's school system, downtown area, library and recreation facilities are all important for that, she said.

"I think that we need to keep that in mind in the future," she said. "We need to have places that you can walk to for your kids (like) playgrounds, parks, neighborhood parks."

Salem needs a full-service hotel to house the teams that come to the city to play, Turk said. She mentioned putting a hotel near the civic center, which was the idea of a former city council, or putting one near Roanoke College. The lodging tax would be really helpful, she said.

"We've got a lot of improvements we have to make, and we're working on those, as Jim said," Turk said. "We know what they are, we have them in the queue."

The candidates were asked if they consider Salem to be business-friendly.

At one point, the answer may have been no, but the city is much more business-friendly than it used to be, Wallace said. He attributes this to the city's "proactive" economic development department.

"We've got a staff of two full-time and then one part-time individual in the economic development office now, and they're really doing a good job of getting out and checking in with businesses around the community," he said.

Turk called businesses the "life blood" of the city and said that if there's something the city can do to make things better for business owners, she wants them to let her know.

"I feel like we are, but if we're not, I want to hear about it, and I know we all want to hear about it," Turk said. "If there are things we can do to improve, to make it a good process, to make sure that people are not having to go through too many hoops to be able to get settled in Salem, we do want to know about it."

Green expressed how important small businesses are to the city. The local, unique businesses are the ones that bring people in, and they're the ones that need the most support, she said.

"Businesses are the backbone of any community, particularly the small businesses – they're the vast majority of businesses," Green said. "I think it's really important to support them and to support people who are willing to take that leap of faith, you know, leaving maybe a job they have and starting their own business."

Early voting is open at the registrar's office until 5 p.m. on Nov. 2. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Lily Kincaid (540) 986-5851

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