The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission is soliciting proposals in order to contract for legal services during the administration of a grant from Virginia Housing for the RVARC Housing Development Program.

Proposals must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, December 10, 2021.

The complete RFP can be found here.

Inquiries concerning this RFP should be directed to:

Bryan W. Hill, AICP, CZA, Regional Planner III
Grant Administrator
Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
P.O. Box 2569
Roanoke, VA  24010
Or e-mailed to: bhill@rvarc.org

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission announced today that Jeremy Holmes has been named the new Executive Director. Holmes follows Wayne Strickland, who retires June 30^th after 42 years with the Regional Commission.

Holmes has served as director of the Commission’s RIDE Solutions Commuter Assistance Program for the past fifteen years and in January of 2020 became the Commission’s Associate Executive Director. In addition to his leadership of the RIDE Solutions program, Holmes has been involved in a number of regional community advocacy efforts, including the Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition, the Greater Roanoke Valley Asthma and Air Quality Coalition, Roanoke Valley Reads, and Healthy Roanoke Valley. Holmes holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Roanoke College and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Hollins University.

“I am thrilled and honored with the trust the Commission’s Board has placed in me,” Holmes said. “As the region emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, this period before us presents not just the promise of recovery from the worst of its impacts, but a once-in-a-generation opportunity to tap into resources for growth in areas like expanding broadband access, enhancing our regional transportation system, and promoting regional economic growth. I am excited at the chance to serve the region’s local governments in achieving these goals.”

Vinton Mayor Bradley Grose, Chairman of the Regional Commission and the Search Committee to hire a new Executive Director, said, “The committee members were impressed by Jeremy’s understanding of regional issues and priorities and his passion for the work.” The search committee conducted interviews after the announcement of Strickland’s retirement in March. The committee made their recommendation to the Executive Committee at their May 13^thmeeting, who then made their recommendation to the full Board today. The Board voted unanimously to name Holmes to the position.

Holmes plans to focus his first several months on the job in assisting localities and other regional organizations to take advantage of the many funding opportunities being made as a result of the American Recovery Act and related COVID-recovery programs at the federal and state level.

At their Thursday, December 10th meeting, the Regional Commission Board adopted the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Housing Market Study Analysis.

This comprehensive study is composed of five individual studies: Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Housing Study; Franklin County Countywide Housing Study; City of Roanoke Citywide Housing Study; Roanoke County Countywide Housing Study; and City of Salem Citywide Housing Study. To view the entire study, click on the image to the right.

The goals and purpose of the Study are to:

1. Identify housing needs and provide both a region-wide and locality-specific housing market analysis.
2. Identify housing supply and demand issues and opportunities within the region and within each of the four sub-geographies.
3. Advance economic development opportunities by addressing housing concerns.
4. Develop regional and locality-specific recommendations to address housing needs.
5. Engage stakeholders to help understand housing needs/challenges and create a shared understanding of that need.

The Roanoke Valley doesn’t have much severe traffic congestion – and we want to keep it that way! After the population of the urbanized region exceeded 200,000, the RVTPO adopted its first federally required congestion management process in 2014. The 2020 Traffic Congestion Management Process, approved on October 22, is the first update, incorporating changes in technology and regulations, data analyses, and stakeholder input.

The update identifies five priority corridors for congestion management identified through analysis of real-time data collected from GPS-equipped vehicles and mobile devices as well as corridors of concern identified through public input. View the interactive map of corridors for congestion management here.

Corridors for Congestion Management

Learn more about the update of the Traffic Congestion Management Process here.

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission is pleased to present its FY20 Annual Report. This report highlights the programs, projects, and events that took place over the past fiscal year.

We would like to thank our 11 member governments for their ongoing support of our organization’s programs/projects over the years.

Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission staff has prepared a COVID-19 dashboard that tracks regional cases and includes demographics and mapping on vulnerable populations.  Data and mapping is available for each locality down to the census tract level. Unemployment claims, nursing homes location, zip code COVID-19 data are included in the dashboard. COVID-19 cases and deaths are updated hourly from Johns Hopkins.  To access the dashboard, click here.