Must do's for 10 yr old in Rocky Mount/SML (Roanoke: middle-class, sale)

[Lizzy67]

We are considering moving to the Roanoka area but my husband is wanting to live ON the lake. I just worry about my kids having friends to play with. Are there many families that live on the lake? Or are the homes very secluded and not conducive to having lots of young, nearby kids to play with. My kids are 8 and 11. Lake living would be fantastic for us parents...but may be a bit limiting for the kids. Any thoughts?

[seanpecor]

I think that the family demographics depends on the lake subdivision. You may have subdivisions where each home is somewhat secluded, and you may have others where you've got 1-2 acre lots and it looks like a typical suburb. One suburban style subdivision in particular you have to drive through to access the brand new Smith Mountain Lake Community Park. Here is a home example:

Smith Mountain Lake real estate Homes for sale in Moneta VA Beautiful New Waterfront Home property properties, lakefront, waterfront

Lake living is more akin to resort living and if you're looking for a neighborhood where your children will have friends within a 10 minute walk then you may find lake living a disappointment. The reality is most couples with children on the lake work in the Roanoke area and you're looking at - minimum - a 45 minute drive to downtown Roanoke. Rush hour might even push it to an hour in each direction. And then the other reality is that Franklin County High School is likely to be at least a 70 minute round trip by car. By school bus, around 80 minutes in each direction. And getting to middle and high school functions may mean driving 40 minutes from work in Roanoke to Rocky Mount and then driving 35 minutes home to the lake. Is all that worth it just to live by the water?

Maybe a more family-friendly compromise would be buying a nice home in a great neighborhood for $300K-500K in Roanoke City and then later searching for the perfect weekend lake home. In this way, you could save $100K to $200K by extending your lake retreat home search to include more remote parts of the lake; because you'd be less concerned about day to day living conveniences and in 15 years or so when your kids have left the nest, due to ongoing development, that "remote" home will then be quite close to lots of conveniences and you could sell your Roanoke home and make your lake home your year round residence.

Sean

[Blue Moon Athena]

Originally Posted by Lizzy67

We are considering moving to the Roanoka area but my husband is wanting to live ON the lake. I just worry about my kids having friends to play with. Are there many families that live on the lake? Or are the homes very secluded and not conducive to having lots of young, nearby kids to play with. My kids are 8 and 11. Lake living would be fantastic for us parents...but may be a bit limiting for the kids. Any thoughts?

From a standpoint of how your children will like it, living full time around the lake is probably not a good idea. See previous response to your question under the heading of "Smith Mountain Lake or Lake Norman, NC??"

In addition to what is stated in that response, if your husband and/or you will be working outside of the home, note that the number of job opportunities within a 20-25 minute drive or so from just about anywhere on the lake are limited. Most people that I've talked to since moving to the area have said that to make any sort of money, one needs to travel to Roanoke or Lynchburg. Both of which can be more than an hour drive from places on the lake.

As the previous responder stated, things can vary from each area or subdivision. But as an example, in the subdivision I am living at on the lake, there are zero children as full time residents. None. There are a number of children here visiting on the weekend. But that is a summer phenomena. From what I've been told, the area around the lake is very, VERY quiet during the period from late fall to late spring.

[j1n]

Originally Posted by Blue Moon Athena

From a standpoint of how your children will like it, living full time around the lake is probably not a good idea. See previous response to your question under the heading of "Smith Mountain Lake or Lake Norman, NC??"

In addition to what is stated in that response, if your husband and/or you will be working outside of the home, note that the number of job opportunities within a 20-25 minute drive or so from just about anywhere on the lake are limited. Most people that I've talked to since moving to the area have said that to make any sort of money, one needs to travel to Roanoke or Lynchburg. Both of which can be more than an hour drive from places on the lake.

As the previous responder stated, things can vary from each area or subdivision. But as an example, in the subdivision I am living at on the lake, there are zero children as full time residents. None. There are a number of children here visiting on the weekend. But that is a summer phenomena. From what I've been told, the area around the lake is very, VERY quiet during the period from late fall to late spring.

I'd have to agree. Activities for a child will most likely be based outside of the SML area, and you will potentially find yourself doing a lot of driving...to and from "town".
And Lizzy67...I'm curious about your statement "...husband is wanting to live ON the lake". Is he really so enamored with SML? What is it that he likes that he wants to be right there?

[Diamond Dave]

Originally Posted by j1n

What is it that he likes that he wants to be right there?

Yeah, remember that SML is full of Roanoke River water.

Eeewww....

[j1n]

Originally Posted by Diamond Dave

Yeah, remember that SML is full of Roanoke River water.

Eeewww....

Is the Roanoke River really all that nasty? I've never even taken a good look at it. I know SML is pretty gnarly.

[seanpecor]

j1n, do you have any data to back up your claim that the SML water is heavily polluted? I know that you have a bone to pick with man-made lakes in general, but what evidence do you have? DEQ data suggests that relative to other lakes in the U.S. it is much cleaner and beach closures are rare. By contrast, I grew up in Vermont next to Lake Champlain, and the Lake Champlain beaches were closed due to E. Coli several times every summer.

SML water quality is a top concern for the Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission and a few volunteer groups. AEP owns a 50' debris skimmer that runs continually. Garbage and debris appearing on SML is most often due to a storm that scours debris along the Roanoke and Blackwater and pushes it into the lake. Volunteer groups and contract debris removers are constantly cleaning the debris. Debris in my experience is uncommon. I know its out there, but I've never actually seen anything floating in the water except of course at Hales Ford Bridge and I have to wonder how much of that is from the heavy vehicle traffic over the bridge? With respect to pollution in general, this challenge is universal to all lakes in the U.S. though I feel SML goes way above the standard. Traces of oil are certainly an issue in any busy lake but SML is relatively clean. I've swam in the lake and walked the shoreline from many different points in both Bedford and Franklin Counties and the only place I've seen traces of oil on the surface is near Hales Ford Bridge, where there is a significant concentration of recreational and commercial boats and vehicular bridge traffic (any residual oil on the road surface would be scoured off by rains and would be deposited in the lake).

SML is used as a water supply in Bedford County. Mercury levels in fish are around 50ppb, 1/20th the federal standard of 1ppm.

Sean

[j1n]

I just trust my eyes enough to know that I wouldn't want to swim in (or ingest) water with huge oil slicks. Even if it's concentrated in one or two spots, it's still in the water.

[Blue Moon Athena]

Originally Posted by j1n

I just trust my eyes enough to know that I wouldn't want to swim in (or ingest) water with huge oil slicks. Even if it's concentrated in one or two spots, it's still in the water.

I've been swimming in SML almost every day since late May. Aside from the fact that I occasionally glow, everything else seems normal

Kidding aside, it seems okay to me. At least in the area I've been dipping in. (Bedford side, a few miles south of the bridge)

[Diamond Dave]

Here is an interesting op-ed from Rupert Cutler back in '04 that details Roanoke's efforts to help preserve SML water quality:

Roanokers are good friends of Smith Mountain Lake - Roanoke.com

Occasionally, the state park beach is closed due to high bacteria counts caused by geese. But most of my evidence is anecdotal, and comes from seeing what the river flows through in Roanoke and Salem before it goes over the Niagara Dam.