River Farm Update

Last week, I met with Supervisor Dan Storck, Senator Adam Ebbin, Delegate Paul Krizek, representatives from the offices of Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Congressman Don Beyer, and the Fairfax County, the National Park Service (NPS), and Northern Virginia Regional Park Authorities (NVRPA), and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association (MVLA). The purpose was to discuss a strategy to preserve River Farm.

The NPS owns a conservation easement on the front two acres of the property closest to East Boulevard Drive.  The American Horticultural Society (AHS) donated a conservation easement of seven acres along the river to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.  The remainder of the property appears to be unencumbered.  We have not been able to determine whether Ms. Haupt's gift to AHS contained a condition to keep the property open to the public, but if she did, such a restriction was not recorded in land records.

The NVRPA and the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) are talking to their Boards about the feasibility of taking up this property as an operating unit.  The NPS said the River Farm property fits within the mission of the Mount Vernon Memorial Parkway, but they would have many layers to work through before they could become involved and congressional legislation would help if that is the direction the community would like to take.  

The MVLA said that they do not have the capacity to take on another external property like this at this time and aside from being part of the Estate, it did not appear that this property had any specific historical uses other than farmland or forest.  The Virginia State Park system likewise indicated that they have little experience operating a park unit like this and that it would be an entirely new experience for them.  They are probably not interested.

From the perspective of our group, the first order of business is to get AHS to consider selling the property to a public entity.  We must then determine which agency would take lead on operating the property and then come up with a funding plan.

The AHS Board is meeting this week to consider this entire situation.  We are hopeful that after that meeting, we can initiate a discussion.  We are having a second meeting this week and I have a meeting set up with the Acting Director of the AHS on Friday.  

Please continue to share our petition.  We now have over 1,500 signatures and comments to share with AHS.  Please continue to circulate the petition so we can get those numbers up as high as possible and show AHS that there is deep community support for a public use and opposition to private ownership.  You can complete the petition here:

www.scottsurovell.org/petition-to-save-river-farm/

Thank you for your support and let me know if you have any questions.