CBJ: Fluvanna seeks the right growth

PALMYRA - Fluvanna County has natural beauty in spades, but as its population grows, the community’s leaders are trying to find a balance between nature and commerce.

Vicki Karabinus is part of that process. In her first two months as the county’s economic development coordinator, Karabinus has worked with county officials and residents and created initiatives to tout Fluvanna.

Karabinus, 55, took over June 1 for Kim Booth, who resigned to move back to Alaska with her family. About 10 years after Karabinus and her family left Earlysville for their home state of Ohio, the lure of Virginia and the job market brought the family to Lake Monticello.

“I loved the rural beauty and to be able to drive and see mountains in the distance,” Karabinus said.

Since arriving in the county, Karabinus has created the “FluvannaFirst” campaign. The effort, driven by a logo that will appear on county government and Fluvanna County Chamber of Commerce materials, is meant to remind Fluvanna residents of all that lies within the locality’s borders.

“We want our citizens to know that they can take care of their medical, dental and optical needs out here,” Karabinus said. “If they have some shopping to do, they can do it here. They don’t have to drive … into Charlottesville or … into Richmond.”

Q. What is the state of Fluvanna County’s economic development?

A. As it stands right now, I personally think it’s a really exciting time. Our Board of Supervisors adopted our Comprehensive Plan for the county in March. It talks a lot about land use, the desire to preserve the beauty of this county, but it also talks about the need to diversify and strengthen our tax base.

The Comprehensive Plan talks about areas that are preserved for the beauty of the land. There are residential areas and then there are districts that they have designated for economic development - Zion Crossroads, Lake Monticello, Palmyra, areas of Scottsville and around Fork Union being obvious ones - and there are rural preservation areas.

I work with a group of volunteers who are our [Fluvanna County] Economic Development Commission. With them, we’re now writing a strategic plan to say this is how we’re going to achieve some of our economic development goals. We really need to get those strategies in place so we can start working on actual projects.

Q. How has Fluvanna County weathered the recession?

A. We’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve been hit; everybody’s been hit. But we’ve been pretty lucky. The one casualty that we had was the Thomasville Furniture Industries plant in Carysbrook in 2007. Times are tough, and some of our businesses are hurting, but so far they’re weathering and looking forward.

I know some of our developers are hurting a little bit. They need to sell some properties and they need to get some access to financing. They’re looking for the right opportunities to open up. We’re laying the groundwork so that once the economy gets a little bit better, the developers have access to money again and we’ll have our plan in place.

Q. How is Fluvanna’s tourism industry doing?

A. Tourism here really is very exciting. One of the things we did within the last couple of years is we partnered with Orange and Louisa counties on the Piedmont Crossroads Visitors Center. We have people up there who will send people to our county to enjoy what we have.

We have so many beautiful recreational facilities. Pleasant Grove is the tract of land that was a working farm at one point, but the county owns it and is developing it. There are hiking trails, equestrian trails and an ADA-accessible hiking trail. We’re going to hold Old Farm Day [at Pleasant Grove] again this year in October, which is sort of Fluvanna’s version of a county fair.

Palmyra itself has a lot of history. We’ve got the historical society over here with the old jail. What we’re hoping to do is really build on that and get people - especially those who love hiking, horseback riding, kayaking and canoeing - to come here for the more recreational, the activity-based tourism.

Q. What challenges does Fluvanna have when it comes to tourism and economic development?

A. When it comes to tourism, we have a couple of challenges. One of them is bringing people into the county and getting them to stay overnight. We don’t really have many places for them to stay. We do have the Rivanna River Resort and Golf Club, [and they are] building a beautiful hotel complex.

One of the challenges that we have here that many rural counties have is infrastructure. In Zion Crossroads, there is a need for water and sewer. We’ve got [roads], but we need water to attract some of the businesses that we want.

The other infrastructure piece that we’re working on is broadband. The county is working on that as well.

Q. What tourism materials has your office been working on?

A. We’re working on a brochure. It’s basically going to be just an image piece of Fluvanna County to let folks know that we’re out here and we want to talk business. Our hope is that once this is done, we’re going to work on a tourism [guide] of all of the wonderful things you can do and see in Fluvanna.

Q. How have residents responded to the county’s economic development efforts?

A. It’s a mixed bag. There are some who understand what we’re doing. There are others who are impatient for economic development. There are others who would rather see Fluvanna stay very rural and very pristine.

I think at the end of the day, everyone will come together in some degree or another. People will understand that there are certain things we need to do, but we can do them in a way to preserve the county.

Q. What can residents expect to see from your office?

A. With everything that we do, we solicit citizen input at public meetings. In the coming months, I hope they will see this effort to get out and communicate and talk with people. After that, I think we can lay out a strategy and find the businesses that we want to attract to the area.

There is staff responsible for all of this, but we could not do what we do without the people who volunteer with the economic development commission and [county] Economic Development Authority. These people are passionate about this county. It has been a wonderful experience for me getting to know these people and watching them work together to move the county forward.