The mission statement of Keep Montpelier Rural, Inc. reads, in part:
To ensure that Montpelier’s Rural Village designation remains preserved by promoting commercial development that is compatible with Montpelier’s rural residential environment, and
New development should be appropriate in scale and designed to complement the unique character of Montpelier and done with good judgment and planning so that we all can coexist in harmony
Towns and villages across Virginia have succumbed to unfettered commercial growth for the sake of convenience, trendiness and the urge to make a quick buck.
In the process, these towns and villages have lost their sense of place; their uniqueness that made people want to move there, raise their families there, worship there and feel that certain sense of community that was found lacking in the cities and suburbs from which they fled.
Is Montpelier headed down that same road of “progress” for the sake of progress, or can it hold on to its character, charm and yes, its “ruralness”?
The point of this piece is not to denigrate those who want to see more commercial and economic development in Montpelier. Rather it’s to caution those who believe that “commercial development is inevitable so why fight it”, that there is more at stake to our community than avoiding a fifteen minute drive to a fast food joint or filling up at a “clean” gas station can ever replace.
To further this point more eloquently, we’ll point you to these recent columns in the Richmond publication Style Weekly. In both columns, the authors lament the watering down of what makes Richmond “Richmond” – losing its sense of place – by ignoring what is already there for the short-sightedness of doing what’s expedient for profit’s sake. Those sentiments are relative to Montpelier as our residents grapple with the commercial developments on its horizon.
In “Planners for the Proposed 100-unit Apartment Building, 805W, on West Cary Should Go Back to the Drawing Board” architecture critic Ed Slipek writes about that which is stated in our mission statement, namely: “New development should be appropriate in scale and designed to complement the unique character of Montpelier and done with good judgment and planning so that we all can coexist in harmony.”
And “Richmond, Erased: What kind of city do you want to leave for your descendants?” by Joe Essid asks “Where might this all end? Not in bulldozed and tacky sprawl from Williamsburg to Charlottesville, [or Short Pump] perhaps, but in something nearly as awful: a place with no continuity, a landscape remade to fit the needs of short-term profits and shorter-term fads.”
Regardless if you’ve lived here for fifty years or just moved in last week, read the articles and ask yourself “what kind of future do you want for Montpelier”?