Region 2000 Clean water, low crime, good public schools and low property taxes make the greater Lynchburg area a top-ranked family zone.

Mort Sajadian, far right, calls Amazement Square, a $5 million children's museum scheduled to open this summer, a "pioneer" in Lynchburg's dowtown development. Photo by Mark Rhodes

By Lisa K. Garcia
There’s a slow transformation in Lynchburg, a historic riverside city. Investors and government agencies are pumping money into the downtown district, particularly to upgrade its cache of aging historic buildings where workers once dipped their toes into the James River during lunch breaks.

It’s no surprise that part of that transformation includes creating a mecca for the community’s youngest residents. Visionaries of Amazement Square chose an 1863 warehouse for a 29,000-square-foot, hands-on children’s museum. The 136-year-old structure should be open by late summer 2000.

Mort Sajadian left a job heading up the Seattle, Wash., children’s museum to lead the effort for the regional children’s museum here. What began as an idea in 1993 is fast becoming reality in the J.W. Wood Building. The $5 million project — funded mostly by private and corporate donations — will include a 54-foot long replica of the James River. Children will make and float model watercraft and "learn by playing," according to Sajadian. Amazement Tower, a combination of pathways, tunnels, stairs and a glass elevator will connect the museum’s four floors.

"Amazement Square has been a pioneer by going downtown," he says, "by being the first viable cultural entity to help with the revitalization of downtown and encourage the participation of others in the community."

Region 2000 — which includes Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties as well the cities of Lynchburg and Bedford — is capitalizing on its strengths by enhancing its already favorable, family-friendly atmosphere that includes a low crime rate, good schools and a low unemployment rate.

Stability is an important component of a happy family and home life. A stable community can attract families that want a solid local economy in which to raise their families.

Growth has been slow but constant in Lynchburg, allowing planners to focus on polishing amenities and infrastructure: millions of dollars in new schools; a $15 million expansion and renovation of Bedford’s courthouse and social services buildings; and millions of dollars to reinvigorate historic buildings and neighborhoods.

The biggest challenge in the Region 2000 area may be getting there. Lynchburg, with a population of roughly 65,000, is the biggest city in the commonwealth without a nearby interstate. Rex Hammond, president of the Greater Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce, says transportation is its top legislative priority.

Local leaders want improvements to the major roads that do run through the area, U.S. Route 460 and U.S. Route 29. Their biggest endeavor, however, may be a push to make expanded passenger rail service — the TransDominion Express — a reality.

That project would offer passenger rail service from Bristol to Washington, D.C., and Richmond, as well as points in between. Hammond says it’s relatively inexpensive when compared with the cost of road improvements. He ticks off other advantages of rail service: more safety, less traffic congestion, less pollution and less need for highway expansions.

The express, should the state fund it, would feed into future high-speed rail service in Washington and Richmond. Getting state support and community backing, however, are serious challenges for the chamber and other promoters. The project would cost an estimated $10 million. It would use mostly existing rail bed and, once funded, could be up and running in two years.

The region’s hub station would be in Lynchburg’s renovated Kemper Street Station, which now offers limited passenger rail service through Amtrak. Once renovations are complete at the station, sometime in 2001, travelers would be able to catch a Greyhound or local bus there as well.

Transportation is an issue statewide, but Region 2000 shares the woes of smaller communities like Martinsville and Danville: lack of a major interstate, lack of a port, and an airport without a low-cost carrier.

Hammond says the state has appropriated $103 million for improvements to U.S. 29’s Madison Heights bypass that will put improvements for the highway back on schedule. And the area’s Lynchburg Regional Airport does offer air service to four major cities: Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Charlotte, N.C. and Atlanta. Kelly Baker, strategic business manager for the airport, says that while it shares the same problems as many of Virginia’s airports, it is competitive given its size.

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When Bedford city and county voters balked at the idea of becoming a unified city, economic developers had to work out a way to meet the needs of entities with separate governing bodies. The result was a cooperative, revenue-sharing agreement that allowed them to buy land together, develop joint industrial parks and share revenue.

The cooperative agreement includes the city’s promise to expand water and sewer services for the creation or expansion of industrial parks contiguous to the city. Three of the four parks are on county land. The agreement became official in December 1998.

The rare coupling of communities is thematic of the cooperation found in Region 2000. In Lynchburg’s State of the City address in February, the mayor noted the city had "formed a partnership" with Campbell County to support a proposed western route for the Route 29 bypass.

Lynchburg tends to be the epicenter of many regional efforts, including magnet schools such as the Virginia School of the Arts, where students follow an intense course of study in music or dance from a young age. The city also hosts the Governor’s School for Science and Technology. Both opened in 1985.

Citizens also are participating in Regional Renaissance, an effort to pinpoint the area’s highest priorities for "quality of life thresholds" including a livable wage, preservation of landscape and cultural enhancement. More than 2,000 people have participated in focus meetings held at public schools and major employment centers.

Lee Hood Capps, executive director of the Central Virginia Planning District Commission, says Regional Renaissance is unique to Virginia, but similar to an effort in Chattanooga, Tenn.

"The reason I believe this is so essential to the economic development of the area is because it’s the first extensive outreach to orchestrate community interests throughout the region into a single set of objectives," Capps says.

By August 2000, with votes tallied and goals set, Capps says selected groups will adopt Regional Renaissance objectives and work toward making them a reality.

Although most any economic developer will tout his region’s high quality of life, Region 2000 has independent analysis to support its claims.

Money magazine ranked Lynchburg second in the small-city class of best places to live based on quality of life factors such as clean water, low crime, good public schools and low property taxes. A Reader’s Digest poll placed the Lynchburg metropolitan statistical area — which includes all of Region 2000 except Appomattox County — in the top 50 best places to raise a family.

Kim Butler, marketing manager for Region 2000, says she expects the area will continue on its path of slow, steady growth. The area is best known for its strong manufacturing base, which employs more than a fourth of the work force.

"We have had an employment growth of about 1 percent per year for the last eight years," she says. "That trend will continue."