One of the special attributes of Virginia is the beauty of the countryside, especially in the northern piedmont. The rolling hills and curving country roads… the vineyards and manicured horse farms… the charming hamlets with quaint, historical downtowns. It’s an extraordinary asset for all of us city and suburban dwellers who enjoy the occasional weekend getaway.
A huge question is: How do we preserve that bucolic landscape from leapfrogging suburbanization (scattered, disconnected, low density development) emanating from Virginia’s New Urban Regions? More to the point, how do we preserve it without turning the region into a cultural museum — in other words, while also preserving economic opportunity for the people who live there?
The most fully developed economic development strategy for Virginia’s countryside is the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, which pursues several interlocking themes: heritage tourism, sustainable agriculture, landscape preservation and Main Street revitalization. The author and driving force of this strategy is Cate Magennis Wyatt, Secretary of Commerce during the Wilder administration, who lives in an old Quaker village, Waterford, in Loudoun County. What’s most remarkable about the initiative is not the individual ideas, bits and pieces of which have been implemented elsewhere, but the comprehensiveness of the vision and the energy with which it has been embraced by literally dozens of local governments and civic organizations between Monticello and Gettysburg, Pa.
I describe the economic development thinking behind the Journey Through Hallowed Ground in today’s column, “Honoring Hallowed Ground.” Many other swaths of Virginia countryside could learn from the experience of Virginia’s northern piedmont.