County’s largest landowner studies development options on Eldon Farms
Rappahannock County’s largest landowner, Lane Industries, Inc., has hired a Pennsylvania consulting firm to study its 7,600-acre Eldon Farms property to recommend options on future use or development–a move that could result in a large-scale development that might have major impact on the county’s rural character.
The Rappahannock Voice learned of the unpublicized study this week, and County Administrator John McCarthy confirmed that the consulting firm, Cahill Associates of West Chester, PA, has been in discussions with him about the Eldon Farms study since some time last summer. Cahill Associates, on behalf of the landowner, is “evaluating all their (Lane Industries) options on the property”, including the possibilities of selling, developing, or maintaining farm operations on Eldon Farms.
It is by no means certain that the study by the consulting firm will result in any development of the huge property, but both McCarthy and others expressed concern that the study may open the way to a proposal for large-scale residential development of some or all of the vast acreage amassed by Lane since the 1960s.
McCarthy characterized the consulting firm’s work as “a very broad-based study” of what Lane Industries might do with its Eldon Farms property in the future. He said, “It is still very early as to what they will recommend to Lane Industries,” which is a private, family-owned holding company that has multiple operations, including owning and managing hotels and motels, manufacturing businesses, and farm and ranch operations.
At Cahill Associates, the executive in charge of the Eldon Farms study, Wesley Horner, said in reponse to a Rappahannock Voice query that he had been instructed by Lane Industries not to discuss his firm’s work for the landowner. “We are in mid-stream in our work,” he said, but he was not free to describe the scope or goals of the study now underway.
The Cahill consultant did add, however, that based on his visits here, that he considered Rappahannock County “a remarkable place” and that “our dealings with people in Rappahannock County have been just wonderful.” He referred the Rappahannock Voice to an executive at Lane Industries headquarters near Chicago for any further comment.
That executive, Bill Keating, was guarded in his comments about the study. “We retained Cahill Associates to inventory our land, to tell us what is there, so that we can make good land-management decisions,” Keating said. “One of the things we are studying is good agricultural practices.” Asked if the study includes considering other options for the land, including development, he said, “This study was merely to inventory the land. At some point in the future we can sit down and look at whether we are properly utilizing the land….I couldn’t rule anything out.”
The county adminstrator spoke highly of Cahill Associates, which bills itself as “Environmental Consultants” on its website (www.thcahill.com.) “Cahill Associates is great,” McCarthy said. “Their projects have a significant conservation component.” According to the firm’s website, “Cahill Associates (CA) is an environmental consulting firm specializing in water resource management, environmental planning, and sustainable site design. Our firm is committed to managing and sustaining our valuable land and water resources while meeting the increasingly demanding needs of society.”
Asked if he was concerned about the potential impact on the county if Lane Industries decides to develop Eldon farms for residential or commercial use, McCarthy replied, “I am no more concerned than I ever have been, but I have been very concerned ever since I have been here” that Lane Industries might sell to a developer or develop the property itself. “It is a worry.” His worry, he said, is mitigated somewhat by the good reputation of Cahill Associates for incorporating environmental protection and conservation elements into those projects it designs.
McCarthy added, “Since we first got hint of this, we have been pushing for a significant conservation element” to any potential development proposal by Lane Industries. He said he has spoken to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency that accepts donations of scenic and conservation easements on land, and VOF is receptive to conserving significant portions of Eldon Farms in easement if Lane Industries goes forward with a proposal to develop the property for residential or commercial use.
The county adminstrator said Cahill Associates is doing a very broad study of options for the property, including research on zoning, highway traffic counts, soil types, water resources, market value of the property and many other factors. “We’re still in very early innings as to what they will recommend to Lane,” he said.
The Lane land holdings sprawl across a wide swath of the southern portion of Rappahannock County. The Eldon Farms operating headquarters lies just north of Woodville along Route 522 between Sperryville and the county line with Culpeper county. These properties originally were purchased by William Lane II, who headed Lane Industries until he died in 1978.
For many years, there has been widespread concern in the county as to what an out-of state corporation, with no remaining personal ties to Rappahannock, might do with its land treasure in this county. Due to the sharp rise in property values in this county over the past decade, the Lane Industries holdings are vastly more valuable now than in the past.
Because it owns so much land, Lane Industries by right could develop Eldon Farms into small residential estates of 25 acres or more, under current county zoning. That move in itself could create a substantial residential development, larger than any now existing. Another possible route would be for Lane Industries to propose to maintain open green space on large portions of their land in return for a zoning amendment that would permit more dense “cluster development” on portions of the property.
One county landowner whose property is in the vicinity of Eldon Farms expressed alarm at the possible outcome of Lane Industries’ rethinking of its land-holdings here.
“They could build a new village that would be larger than any village in the county, and this would cause real property-tax problems,” said this resident, who asked to remain anonymous. By right, Eldon Farms probably could divide up its land into 300 or more parcels larger than 25 acres. “This could cause a 20% increase in the county’s school population, and trigger the need for a new middle school, which would cost millions,” he speculated. “If you have cluster development here, it will destroy Rappahannock County as we know it.”
Such dire warnings are premature at this stage, as Cahill has not made its recommendations to Lane Industries, and Lane has made no decision on the future of Eldon Farms. But the disclosure of the consultant’s study now underway is sure to heighten concerns in the county about the outcome. The county government has maintained a strong anti-development policy for many years, and there is widespread support among county residents for keeping Rappahannock “as it is,”–scenic, rural, uncongested and historic. But to some degree, the outcome of this new challenge to the county’s rural ethic may be beyond the control of residents or current zoning restrictions. The ultimate decision-making power lies in the hands of a Chicago-area company that may or may not share the same values and goals as Rappahannock County officials and citizens.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from bevhunter
Time: October 27, 2006, 1:36 am
I have good reasons to believe that Wesley Horner and his colleagues at Cahill, along with local employees of Lane Industries, are doing a very thorough and responsible job of identifying the environmental issues and factors related to the Lane properties.
Comment from Sharon Kilpatrick
Time: October 27, 2006, 6:41 pm
I feel that the article is unnecessarily alarmist. When calculating the
number of houses that could be put on Eldon Farm, it is not necessary to
start at zero. When William Lane was buying the land in the 1960s, it
was purchased in many parcels. Most of those parcels had a house on
them; some had more than one. Some of those houses were subsequently
demolished, but most were not. From the time when the county first began
to provide public education to the present day, there have always been
children in our public schools living in houses on the land that is now
Eldon Farm. A more interesting number would be the number of ADDITIONAL
houses that could be put on the land.
Sharon Kilpatrick
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