A plan for downtown

By The News Virginian Staff

Published: October 4, 2008

Having swept clean low-hanging fruit, the Waynesboro City Council and its new majority might now reach higher for a prize that so far has eluded. Since early summer, the council has voted without opposition to appoint a city manager and city attorney and approve a greenway project and pursuit of bonds for capital projects backed by voters. Now, what of downtown revitalization?

We can hear the heavy sighs rolling through City Hall and downtown’s lifeless streets. Vice Mayor Frank Lucente waves a dismissive hand at vision, then points to thick studies left to languish. Councilwoman Nancy Dowdy produces documentation of previous revitalization initiatives, some toppled for want of public money, then casts an accusing glance in the direction of council conservatives, Lucente chiefly. Some, both in City Hall and beyond, say revitalization is a thing not needed.

Meanwhile, downtown decays, and the city’s future with it. Amid the malaise, officialdom’s idlers long for the serenity of silence from this corner on the subject. Those gazing beyond tomorrow know the necessity of transforming downtown. The trouble lies in driving ideas from the impalpable realm of heads and paper into the tangible one of bricks and mortar.

Here is our three-step plan to jump-start the effort:

Huddle the thinkers: Waynesboro is populated by people of unique skills and experience, including not only business stalwarts at companies such as Invista and nTelos, but retirees whose work at DuPont and General Electric helped make Waynesboro an industrial jewel in the Shenandoah Valley. We are gathering such people for The News Virginian’s River City 2020 visioning project. We hope to announce an advisory board by month’s end.

Lay the foundation: Part of River City 2020’s task will be to identify a vision for how downtown should develop. This must take into account the city’s considerable strengths and how those can be capitalized upon to build a downtown with long-term economic stability, one that allures as a center of commerce and vibrant city life and one reflective of the city’s character and values. Crucial will be identifying business sectors and companies who match the vision and will emerge as the focus of downtown business recruitment efforts.

Study the models: The News Virginian and River City 2020 will seek to identify three cities that have successfully transformed their downtowns. From examining these places, we can draw a revitalization template, complete with steps and benchmarks for rebuilding Waynesboro. River City 2020 then would compile a final white paper detailing its findings.

Having reached this juncture, the task of driving downtown Waynesboro’s rebirth will be, as it is now and always, the city’s, and more specifically, the council’s. As the leading source of daily, in-depth information about this community and one of its longest standing institutions, The News Virginian is pulling together and linking arms with business leaders to build a stronger, more prosperous Waynesboro. We believe the cause is right, necessary and crucial to our city’s future.

Having found rare unanimity on lesser points, the council needs to coalesce on the issue of downtown. The majority must provide the impetus and rally the minority duo of Dowdy and Councilwoman Lorie Smith to the cause. Those two are of the mind that they have done their part already as part of the previous council majority. The immediate necessity is not to identify visions in the manner Lucente disdains but downtown’s importance.

The City Council’s legacy, not as a group in its current makeup but over recent decades, is one of continually lost focus on the subject of downtown. As we and our friends in the business community step forward to lead, we call on the council to cast that legacy to the dust and reach high with us for a prize that will reward us all.