Hanger plan good for city

The News Virginian
Published: October 15, 2008

Venturing from the rubble of partisan unrest kindled earlier this year over who would lead the Augusta County Republican Committee, state Sen. Emmett Hanger has cast his sights on an effort of genuine merit, seeking to mine gold from opportunity long neglected. The Mount Solon Republican wants to build a tourism oasis at the junction of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, a place where vision for decades has been left to rot.

In an area on Afton Mountain where broken-down buildings now stand Hanger wants to create what he calls a “grand entrance” to the Shenandoah Valley, complete with a hotel and conference center and the Artisans Center of Virginia, currently located in Waynesboro’s Willow Oak Plaza. Hanger plans to discuss his idea next week with Shenandoah National Park officials and already has spoken with key players, among them Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, and Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, and landowner Phil Dulaney.

Of those three, the last is crucial. Dulaney owns The Inn at Afton and his corporation, Skyline Swannanoa, owns roughly 750 acres in the Afton area and Nelson County. The Afton-area land is valued at $1.9 million, according to Augusta County records. On Swannanoa property at the Blue Ridge-Skyline junction stand a defunct gift shop, a Howard Johnson’s restaurant, a service station and the Rockfish Gap Tourist Information Center, which is operated by the City of Waynesboro.

Over the weary course of years, Dulaney has been an object of criticism by some for his failure to capitalize on a location quite unlike any other in the United States. The Blue Ridge Parkway, in the tortured lexicon of federal bureaucracy, is the most traveled “national park unit” in America. More than 20 million people annually traverse the route, which features some of the country’s most spectacular vistas. None is more breathtaking than the one offered from Dulaney’s site along Afton Mountain.

We would enjoy hearing his plans to fulfill his property’s potential, which, like the view from Afton Mountain, spreads as far as the eye can see. But Dulaney has been steadfastly resistant to talking to reporters.

However sensible and worthwhile Hanger’s plans might be – and indeed they are this and more – little will happen without Dulaney’s cooperation. In this sense, he cradles in his hands a substantial portion of Waynesboro’s fate. The city can and must help itself by revitalizing downtown. Otherwise, even Hanger’s “grand entrance” will do Waynesboro little good. But if Hanger’s vision is realized, Waynesboro stands to reap benefits of extraordinary proportion.

Though Hanger is taking care in revealing full details with his plan still in its infancy, we take some hope in his speaking publicly about the project after having already discussed it with Dulaney. This appears to mean that the long freeze that has choked off the potential fruits from the development of this gateway to Waynesboro is at last thawing.

If that is the case, we commend Dulaney even as he remains silent. After all, Dulaney’s gain would be not just his own but the region’s. We anxiously wait to hear more, if not from Dulaney himself, then from the whir of progress revving to life on Afton Mountain and in the city below.