Source: Clarke Times-Courier
THURSDAY, JUNE 26 2008 County officials say they are not sure when Georgetown University plans to move forward with a proposal to build a retreat center on the county’ s eastern mountainous ridge line. As of Monday, no formal application or site plan for the project, estimated at $7 million, had been submitted, Zoning Administrator Jesse Russell said.
University officials have been talking with county planning and zoning officials about constructing what they described as a “contemplative center” on a 56-acre property on Blue Ridge Mountain Road. The aim is to provide a place where students, staff, and faculty can come to gain spiritual renewal. In addition to the approximately 200,000-square-foot retreat center with a dining hall, chapel, and community rooms, the complex would include cabin residences, according to initial information submitted by the university.
Last week, officials of the Jesuit university, which is located near Washington, D.C., withdrew their application for a conservation easement for the property, which contains a 19th century historic home, known as Hohenheim. A concern is that the home will be torn down, county natural resources planner Allison Teetor said. The frame home is well-preserved and is one of the most intact examples of Gothic Revival style architecture in the Bear’s Den Rural Historic District, according to information supplied by architectural historian Maral Kalbian of Berryville. The county’s Conservation Easement Authority had voiced some concern about the project’s size and whether six dwelling unit rights attached to the land would be given up. The county’s preference would be that the dwelling unit rights be given up, Russell said. “They (Georgetown University officials) understand the county’s desire to protect the land, to conserve the land, (to) reduce the residential development on a parcel,” Russell said. To build the center, the university must obtain a special use permit from the county, Russell said.
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Picture is the chapel at Georgetown's main campus
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