David Hoback, who has served as the Executive Director of the West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC) since 2014, will pursue retirement beginning July 1. Through the years of Dave’s leadership, he has left a strong legacy on the organization as well as on the Region.
When Dave assumed leadership of the WPPDC in 2014, it was a time of management instability for the organization, which adversely affected staff productivity. Dave worked to re-establish consistency and reliability in leadership, enabling staff to work in a productive team environment. Since then, funds were redeployed to consistently grant employees annual pay raises which was not previously the case, and the retirement program was improved.
Under Dave’s leadership, the WPPDC and Danville MPO immediately and vigorously embraced the Smart Scale program, and actively partnered with our VDOT planning partners to promote the program and educate local governments in the region. WPPDC staff provided considerable technical assistance in support of the applications submitted by the region’s local governments. PDC/MPO staff submitted approximately $78 million in successful applications since the inception of the Smart Scale program most notably including the Berry Hill Connector Road and Connector Road Extension projects to support future development of the Southern Virginia Mega Site.
Since 2014 WPPDC/Danville MPO staff prepared approximately $90 million in successful grant applications for the PDC/MPO and the local governments in the region. In addition to the significant Berry Hill applications funded through Smart Scale, notable successful applications among others written by the PDC included the Smith River Interceptor for the City of Martinsville, VATI-Broadband for Franklin County, Franklin County Summit View Access Road, Institute for Advanced Learning & Research (IALR) Industry 4.0 program in Danville and an EDA Cares Act for WPPDC to pandemic recovery and economic resiliency.
Since 2014 WPPDC/Danville MPO initiated and conducted a number of successful and significant planning studies to support the advancement of the region. Some of these studies include updates of the regional Hazard Mitigation, Rural Transportation and Bike plans. The PDC also created a regional local foods guide including an interactive map to promote quality of life and tourism in the region. The PDC through a grant from EDA initiated a pandemic recovery and economic resiliency plan in 2020 which is ongoing at this time. Finally, through the Danville MPO several transportation studies were initiated and/or completed including the Long-Range Transportation Plan, Averett/Mt. Cross Roundabout, River District Bike/Pedestrian Plan, Berry Hill Connector Road, 58 West Access Management and the Piney Forest Road studies. The transportation studies were effectively utilized to support several Smart Scale applications including an award of $32 million for the Berry Hill Connector Road and $38 million for the Connector Road Extension project.
Since 2014, the WPPDC initiated two new major PDC programs to advance the ongoing mission of the agency and the services it provides in the region. The PDC began to administer Ride Solutions, a Roanoke-based Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program, designed to promote and foster alternative transportation solutions to reduce carbon emissions by the utilization of alternate transportation modes. In 2020 through the support of an EDA Cares Act grant WPPDC created a new Grant Coordinator position to support the preparation of state and federal grants on behalf of the region’s local governments and other stakeholders. To date successful grant applications have already been funded as a result of this WPPDC initiative. We at the WPPDC wish Dave a happy and healthy retirement!