In an effort to get ahead of the curve — and the U.S. 58 bypass — the Town of Hillsville is updating its comprehensive plan as required by state law.

During the Jan. 26 meeting of Hillsville Town Council, Howard Kohn of the Chesapeake Group was on hand and gave a presentation, which included two possible comprehensive plans that included expanding and adjusting the town’s borders and took into account changes that would come with the Hillsville Bypass.

“The Bypass or whatever you want to call it will have an impact on us,” Kohn said. “It can have a positive impact or a negative impact. It depends upon us and how we try to take advantage of opportunities that exist there. If you want to cause development to happen, you can. You have to take some action to do that. It is in your hands over time.”

Kohn said when designing a plan, it was also important to consider expanding the town’s boundaries to avoid getting “landlocked” and losing out on potential growth and development.

“The preference would be to bring that in under your jurisdiction under a variety of reasons,” Kohn said. “Your greatest tax benefits come from that and you don’t become landlocked. The communities that have trouble — whether they’re large or small — are the ones that get themselves landlocked and they end up with development outside of their midst that they give utilities to but they don’t get the benefits from them. Before you know it, you become choked with no revenue.”

While many might consider it to be a bad time to rework a comprehensive plan, Kohn said the opposite is true. By planning for the future now, he said Hillsville stands to gain once the economy rebounds.

“I think if we go with an aggressive land use policy, I think we’re prepared for when that transition does occur,” Kohn said. “We’re prepared to move. We’ve done the planning, we’ve done the homework. We’re ahead of the scale so we’re prepared to take advantage of the situation when it evolves and gets better.”

Kohn said one advantage Hillsville has is its location. As people begin getting fed up with the urban rat race and with the increased ability for most jobs to be done anywhere, he said people will look to relocate to places where the pace of life is slower.

“People are going to be fed up and say where can I live where I’m going to be comfortable and away from it,” Kohn said. “That leads to locations like we have. We’re going to see activity eventually when things straighten out a little bit.”

Kohn presented two possibilities in his plans. The first plan included expanding the town’s borders while focusing on commercial growth in the areas around the Bypass’ exchanges.

“Option A is less oriented toward downtown and more oriented toward new corridor for commercial areas,” Kohn said.

The second option included expanded town borders, more industrial growth mixed with some commercial areas around the Bypass exchanges, and a more dense residential area surrounding the downtown, which would have an increase in commercial zones.

“Let’s give it a walk-in market,” Kohn said. “You’ve got three to five units per acre, which is how most suburban areas have been built. You surround downtown with that so the impetus is for them to go downtown. Most of that would be in a walking area and combine it with good ways of somebody getting to and from it. You’re helping to build that market in the central area.”

In both models, there were large portions of undeveloped land along U.S. 58 Business, because of flea market use.

“You have a whole corridor that never develops,” Kohn said. “It’s more efficient for me to lease the land once or twice a year for somebody to come in for the Flea Market than it is to have development on it. It’s part of who you are and where you are at this point in time.”

Neither option included land around Interstate 77, an area in which town officials feel will become part of Hillsville soon.

“We have every reason to believe, that either through a friendly adjustment or act of war, the Interstate area will be a part of town at some point,” Hillsville Town Manager Larry South said.

Kohn said they didn’t map that far in the plans he presented, but land to the west of Hillsville would be picked up when he returns to Council with a modified plan.