Be Careful What You Wish For

I have followed with great interest the debate over rezoning sections of the Shenandoah Valley Golf Club as a residential development. Although I now live in Linden, my Quaker ancestors were some of the first settlers of the Rockland area in the late 1720s and early 1730s. I frequently visit sites off of Fairground Road where my ancestors are buried, and this beautiful rural area holds tremendous personal and historical significance for my family. In a perfect world, it would not be my preference to see a housing development built on the SVGC golf course.

Having said that, we do not live in a perfect world. Speaking with the voice of experience, I want to caution opponents of Mr. Richard Runyon’s development plans to be careful about what they wish for.

As I mentioned, I live in Linden. Shortly after I moved up onto Blue Mountain (over two decades ago), a couple by the name of Roscoe proposed to turn a sprawling, derelict orchard property into an Audubon-approved golf destination with a modest number of houses, a restaurant, and an artisan’s village. Predictably, it met with opposition from locals (myself included), who, over the course of a couple of years of making the Roscoes jump through hoops to demonstrate their good intentions, finally managed to defeat their project. This opened the door for the property to be split up and sold off in a hodgepodge of less cohesive or carefully considered development projects. A randomly architected and poorly landscaped collection of houses is scattered across the crown of the mountain. A winery occupies the stretch of Freezeland Road, which affords the most spectacular views to mountain residents — views that now begin to be blocked as the winery’s untrimmed cypress fence grows unchecked. Almost twenty years later, I still wonder what might have been if we, residents of the mountain, had worked with the Roscoes instead of against them.

Mr. Runyon cautions (in his March 5, 2023 interview with the Royal Examiner) that development is coming and that if he, a native who cares deeply for the area, isn’t the one to sensitively manage it in the coming years, then inevitably someone else will rezone and develop the property, resident’s opposition notwithstanding. He is not wrong. Mr. Runyon also stresses that former county planning director Taryn Logan emphasized to him that if the development moves forward, it must be “pretty.” To me, “pretty” means more than just encompassing the development with golf greens or parkland; it means making sure the architecture of the homes and landscaping of the lots are appropriate to a rural valley setting. In the area of South Carolina’s low country where my parents retired, many of the developments have been exquisitely architected and beautifully landscaped and are considered assets to the area. It can be done.

Having learned a painful lesson in what comes from emotionally and reflexively opposing what was, in retrospect, a thoughtful, cohesive development plan here in Linden, I encourage citizens of Rockland not to make the same mistake. Again, speaking as someone with deep ancestral roots in Rockland, someone who has zero desire to see poorly-conceived development in the area, I urge opponents to be careful what you wish for. I don’t want to see what happened to us here on Blue Mountain eventually happen to you in Rockland. Please consider Blue Mountain a cautionary tale and thoughtfully consider what might be achieved by working with Mr. Runyon instead of working against him.

L. Henderson
Linden, VA

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