With growing numbers of residents commuting to Richmond and a new reservoir planned for its northern extremity, rural Cumberland County leaders found themselves facing significant changes.

Instead of passively watching the area evolve, Cumberland County asked Virginia Tech’s Office of Economic Development for help in planning the future of an area around the reservoir, slated for construction in the vicinity of Cobbs Creek.

The Office of Economic Development is now coordinating the work of a team of faculty and students from Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to the office, participants include Virginia Tech’s Community Design Assistance Center, Urban Affairs and Planning program in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Center for Housing Research, and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.

While the reservoir is located in the northern end of the county, the overall scale will affect all of Cumberland relating to development patterns and government finances. The Office of Economic Development’s Associate Director, John Provo, termed the county’s proactive approach, which involves recognizing the opportunities before them and taking action now, as uniquely forward thinking and a model for other rural communities on the fringe of metropolitan areas.
Work with Cumberland began in the spring term with Associate Professor Diane Zahm’s land-use planning studio. Her students from the Urban Affairs and Planning program researched best practices in development around reservoirs and worked with county leaders and civic organizations to prepare a community participation plan that will guide the rest of the project. They also joined community residents at the county’s annual Patriot Day Festival to share information about the project and to survey festival-goers about their preferences for types of development.

Over the summer, Cumberland residents were engaged in a Community Member Photo Identification Project. They were asked to document existing strengths in their community, or represent things they would both like to add or change by taking photos and scouring magazines, newspapers, and on-line resources for images. At a countywide summit in the fall, participants will share these images with each other and work to develop ideas with faculty experts experienced in rural planning, landscape architecture, economic development, and housing.

The community will work on coming to a consensus about priorities for development and directing the faculty on ideas for further study. The final product anticipated from those subsequent research projects will be a sound, feasible, sustainable, and publicly-supported set of concepts the county can market to developers.