The right to own an eyesore

Carrie Eheart was born and raised in the Rockfish Gap area, and her great-grandparents’ property was taken by eminent domain to become part of Shenandoah National Park. That’s why she doesn’t advocate seizure of Dulaney’s property. “It’s his property,” she acknowledged, but she’s irked that “he’s not willing to make it look presentable.”

She started the Facebook group Saving Afton Mountain, which has more than 1,700 members. “I started a group to get support, and it just took off,” she said. Her group offered volunteers to paint and do plumbing, but she said Dulaney didn’t take them up on it. She said he told her, “Y’all need to leave me alone. I don’t have any money.”

“It’s just so frustrating to even talk about it,” she said, particularly since legal remedies are few. Neither Nelson nor Augusta counties have maintenance codes that would require repair of dilapidated structures.

County officials in Augusta and Nelson won’t say anything critical about Dulaney. “I really don’t want to comment,” said Nelson County Administrator Steve Carter, who sees Swannanoa as a draw to Nelson. “Mr. Dulaney has been very helpful to the county over the years.”

Asked about the condition of the inn and surrounding property, Nelson Director of Planning and Zoning Tim Padalino said only, “The county would like to see successful lodging, with venues of different scale and price points.”

In Augusta, it’s practically a Dulaney love fest because he allowed the county to put a modular visitor center on top of the hill beyond the Inn at Afton—and allowed the county to pave the parking lot around it. “We value our relationship with Phil,” said Tim Fitzgerald, Augusta director of community development. “Right now he’s not violating any ordinance.”

Fitzgerald denied any embarrassment about the appearance of the eastern entrance to Augusta County, but conceded that “in an ideal world, we’d have all those buildings taken down,” and pointed out that Dulaney has been taking them down as he’s able to.

“It certainly is an important intersection for us with the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive and I-64,” said Amanda Glover, Augusta director of economic development. “We hope in the long term it may be part of a tourist destination. We would certainly support any development project he has.” Glover said she’s not aware of any Dulaney development plans, but she’s certainly aware of the opportunity in a site that has hundreds of thousands of people coming through every year and is the entrance to Augusta and to the Shenandoah Valley.

It’s that fact that chagrins Nancy Dowdy. “Here’s the heartbreaker to me,” she said. “That piece of property is key to economic development in the valley. Would you go here after seeing that?”

And Starke Smith, who used to take clients to what was the crown jewel connecting Charlottesville and Augusta, said, “It just tore me apart to see the disaster he’s allowed. It’s an eyesore, a disgrace to the valley.”

Said Carrie Eheart, “What’s so hard for us is we’ve seen it in its glory. It connected east and west and it brought tourism and money. It’s hard for all of us who knew what it was and to see what it is now.”

Eheart wonders why Dulaney hasn’t sold the property. Dulaney declined to say whether he’s had offers to buy the property, and insisted that he’s proceeding on a number of fronts. Over the years, he’s talked about plans for the site, but most recently, he told C-VILLE his current plans do not include a $10 million investment in redevelopment.

Smith recounts asking Dulaney if he’d sell the property. “He said, no, it’s like one of my children,” said Smith. “I said, ‘If it was one of your children the state would have taken them a long time ago.’”

Dulaney’s critics say that he doesn’t appear to care what other people think, but he seemed sensitive to the public perceptions. “I’m not up for getting trashed,” said Dulaney, who described himself as a private person. And for those who don’t like what he does on his private property that’s in public view, he said, “I don’t like getting pushed around by anybody.”