RICHMOND—Imagine the dilemma you face if you live in Orange, Berryville, The
Plains, or any of the dozens of hamlets and small towns in Virginia’s
northern piedmont.
You reside in one of the most beautiful places in the
United States: one of the few spots that can compete with, say, the
Cotswolds in England or Tuscany in Italy for the beauty of its natural and
manmade landscapes. You love your way of life, but it’s threatened by sprawl
emanating from the Washington metropolitan area.
If you don’t act, you’ll be
overrun by subdivisions and shopping centers populated by people who commute
to work in Herndon or Tysons Corner, and have no roots in the community or
sympathy for its small-town lifestyle.
What do you do? In today’s society, you have one of two choices.
The easiest way—the way chosen by most communities threatened by growth—is
to pass zoning ordinances, enact restrictive comprehensive plans, and file
lawsuits against any developer who slips through the net. In sum, you
trample property rights into the red clay.
Or you can try what the people of in Virginia’s the northern piedmont
have done. You create an organization like the Journey Through Hallowed
Ground Partnership, dedicated to preserving the integrity of its communities
while honoring the tenets of private property and free enterprise.
JTHG involves a swath of territory running along U.S. 15 from Monticello to
the Gettysburg battlefield, and is a grass-roots movement that encompasses
local governments, Main Street communities, vineyard owners, equestrians,
organic farmers, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, B&B propri-
etors, and caretakers of historical sites as famous as James Madison’s
Montpelier estate and as obscure as the Goose Creek Bridge on a Civil
War-era turnpike.
Led by Cate Magennis Wyatt, familiar to many Virginians as secretary of
commerce during the Wilder administration, JTHG has set an audacious goal:
to stimulate economic activity that is consistent with the region’s existing
way of life. If property values rise sufficiently, Wyatt reasons, farmers
and other landowners won’t feel pressured to sell out to real-estate
developers.
JTHG has three main interlocking parts: heritage tourism, sustainable
agriculture, and small, historic downtowns. Heritage tourism forms the basis
of a regional brand, The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, of a region
steeped in history: Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields,
presidential homes, historic buildings and homes, and African–American
heritage. optional end of graph if space doesn’t permit/koWorking farms and
estates support postcard-perfect farmlands as well as attractions ranging
from vineyard tours to the Gold Cup steeple chases. And the Main Streets of
small towns provide picturesque settings amidst historic architecture and
walkable streets for boutiques, shops, spas, and restaurants.
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