We're writing our Sunday NRV Current editorial today about events at Tuesday night's Christiansburg Town Council meeting. Boxley, a company based in Roanoke, wanted to open a concrete plant in the Chritiansburg Industrial Park. It's a permitted use, but the town manager at his discretion may pull an application for such a plant and ask the council to approve or deny it.
The council, on a 4-1 vote, told the plant to take a hike. Never mind that it is located in an industrial park specifically built to handle truck traffic and close to the highway. Never mind that Boxley is a local company that promised to keep its dust under control as it does at its Roanoke plant.
No, the council said no because it worried that Boxley would compete with the concrete company already in Christiansburg. It did not want a new plant to take business away from the existing one.
In our editorial, we will wonder whatever happened to the free market. It is not council's role to serve as guardian for existing businesses, turning away new jobs because they might affect old ones. Now Christiansburg is stuck with an artificial monopoly.