Cheer projects, and push them

Drawing horses and cattle from the nether reaches of fields frequently involves the fine art of rattling feed in buckets. Drawing homeowners from the nether reaches of living rooms is a tad more detailed, frequently involving plans for developing neighboring property. At least cows can’t carry torches.

A McLean-based outfit known as Pence Friedel Developers plans to open a 180-room hotel and nearly 1 million square feet of retail space, including restaurants and a cinema, at the Route 262 interchange off Interstate 81, just outside of Staunton. The project, which covers 135 acres, would be the largest of its kind in Augusta County history. The county Planning Commission has pushed it over an initial hurdle, voting 6-0 to recommend rezoning the land from agriculture to business. Now supervisors must approve it.

In an apparent attempt to demonstrate Pence Friedel’s acumen, someone – we know not who – decided to display during the commission meeting a slideshow of the firm’s work in Northern Virginia. Uh-oh. “We’re not in Northern Virginia and we don’t want to be there,” responded, on cue, Tina Zumsteg, who lives with her family on Country Club Road about a mile from the proposed site.

Familiar concerns surfaced about development’s incursion on farmland, an issue likely to resonate at least with Nancy Sorrells, the Riverheads supervisor and the board’s land-use champion. Area hotel managers doubted the market could bear a competitor, given their struggles to book rooms. Another complaint was less palatable: that downtown Staunton, four miles away, would suffer. More so than with retail sections on the edge of town? Come now.

Terry Argenbright knows the feeling of resistance. He was rebuffed last year in an attempt to locate a Motocross track and sports park at Augusta Expoland and now is pursuing a similar project at a more secluded site off US 11 in Greenville. Still, the noise complaints are sounding even before the first engine’s rev. So far, few disparaging words have been heard about Bill Hausrath’s plan to bring a multi-screen cinema and other retail to Waynesboro’s West End, but the process is young.

What somehow appears to have been missed amid the ordinary hum of backyard discontent is the startling bright light of optimism these projects bring. Word of Hausrath and Pence Friedel’s proposals came within successive weeks, all at a time when the region and the country have been starved for signs of economic life.

These projects provide an indication, at least, that the wheels of entrepreneurship, having been mired for so long in the tight credit bog, are beginning here to turn. That means jobs might soon sprout from the parched economic earth. We know the construction jobs are only temporary and the retail jobs won’t pay handsomely, but after waves of local layoffs, jobs of any stripe ought to be welcomed.

None of this is to suggest that neighbors’ legitimate worries should be discounted. Ensuring that traffic will flow smoothly and stormwater will roll into drains rather than onto lawns are important components in any development. Safeguarding farmland is a particular concern in Augusta. But if fields are sitting idle because farmers no longer can harvest a profit, it may be time to give way to economic growth.

Given the times, Augusta supervisors should work with zeal to open the path to the Pence Friedel project’s fruition, not by casting off necessary requirements but by ensuring that they are reasonable and clearly communicated. Doing this will necessitate a thickening of skin as the sound of development draws a customary herd of naysayers accompanied by dogs that don’t hunt but howl loudly.