Long-time Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission Executive Director Wayne Strickland retires this month, and looks back on the work achieved in his stead.
Courtesy of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
Wayne Strickland will retire from the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission later this month.
Wayne Strickland is about to have a lot more free time on his hands.
The longtime executive director of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission announced his retirement back in March. It will go into effect on June 30. Jeremy Holmes, who currently serves as the commission’s associate executive director and director of RIDE Solutions, will succeed Strickland as the new executive director.
Strickland has kept a busy schedule over the years as executive director. He imagines the transition of going from full-time working professional to retiree will require some getting used to.
“While the decision to retire was a hard one, I am confident in the work the staff has done and will continue to do under new leadership,” Strickland says. “I have enjoyed my time working with all our local governments and look forward to hearing about the continued good work of the Commission in our region.”
Strickland’s desire to go into the line of work he has made a lifelong career out of started in his childhood. His family did a significant amount of traveling when he was growing up, which initially sparked his interest in geography and planning. “As I traveled around other cities, it was great to see how they had developed,” he says.
The native of Georgia received both undergraduate and graduate degrees, the latter of which was in geography, from Georgia State University. He later passed up an offer to study law at Emory University because he thought that he could have more of a positive impact on the world by becoming a city planner. His decision prompted him to obtain a second graduate degree in city planning from Georgia Tech.
When he moved from Atlanta to Roanoke to start working at the commission, it took him a while to adjust. “Everything downtown closed at 5 p.m. in Roanoke,” he remembers. “It was a huge change, but I appreciated the city. It was a good size. It had good people. I could see that the city had opportunities.”
He has been with the commission for the vast majority of its 50-plus year history.
“We don’t run things, but we play a key role in helping things get started. We encourage people to work together,” he explains.
When he joined the organization as a regional planner in 1979, it was called the Fifth District Planning District Commission. He also served as the chief of land use and environmental planning before becoming executive director in 1987.
Courtesy of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
Strickland is pictured during the early days of his tenure at the commission.
When he first took over as executive director, the commission primarily assisted local governments draft their comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, subdivision ordinances and housing opportunity plans. While that work was important, Strickland wanted to expand the organization’s impact by also engaging with organizations and governments in surrounding areas, including the New River Valley and central Virginia.
“Focusing on partnerships became an area of focus of mine,” he says.
Throughout his 42 years with the commission, both the organization and region have changed quite a bit.
In 1996, the commission was instrumental in establishing the Roanoke Valley Greenway Commission. For the first three years, it was part of Strickland’s organization, before spinning off and establishing its own board.
In 2001, the commission worked to establish RIDE Solutions, a rideshare program that was designed to encourage locals to use alternative modes of transportation while commuting to work.
Other initiatives the commission has been a part of include the Western Virginia Water Authority and the 2014 creation of the Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority.
The commission’s service area consists of 2,325 square miles throughout the cities of Covington, Salem and Roanoke, the towns of Rocky Mount, Vinton and Clifton Forge and counties of Alleghany, Craig, Botetourt, Roanoke and Franklin. Its mission is to encourage and facilitate local government cooperation and state and local cooperation in addressing regional problems.
Strickland anticipates that the region’s largely stagnant population number will be something the commission will look into going forward.
“Our population growth isn’t substantial. Over the last two decades, we haven’t grown more than 0.03% per year. It would be nice to have a little more population growth,” he says. “Businesses are attracted to areas where there is substantive growth. We could do that by bringing in more business and encouraging more folks to locate here.”
Courtesy of the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission
Strickland, left, was presented with an award from the National Association of Development Organizations in 2013.
Phil North, who represents the Hollins Magisterial District on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and serves as vice chair of the commission, praised Strickland and his staff for their responsiveness to the commission’s member governments throughout the region when Strickland’s retirement plans were announced.
“On behalf of the Regional Commission, I would like to thank Wayne for his service to the commission and his continued devotion to making the region a better place for everyone to live, work, and play,” Bradley Grose, the mayor of the Town of Vinton and the commission’s chair, says. “Wayne has always conducted himself in a gentlemanly manner as he has provided steady leadership for the Regional Commission. Wayne’s leadership, intelligence, and effectiveness are highly respected in our region and throughout the state. I have appreciated the opportunity to work with someone of his caliber and integrity.”
Holmes plans to focus his first several months on the job in assisting localities and other regional organizations 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.
“I am thrilled and honored with the trust the Commission’s Board has placed in me,” Holmes says. “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.”
About the Author:
Aila Boyd is an educator and journalist who resides in Roanoke. She holds an MFA in Writing from Lindenwood University.