FREELANCE STAR

Good growth
February 26, 2008 12:15 am
 
RECENTLY, our Business section looked at the status of some local projects. Checking the list, it's clear the Fredericksburg region has made a lot of progress in the last couple of years on some important improvements.

Start with Crow's Nest. Saving the 4,000-acre Stafford County peninsula has for years been the subject of editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor and the focus of interest groups and political officials. Now, persistence has paid off: The county has signed a $19 million deal to buy 1,720 acres of the land, with an option to buy more.

An extinct amenity--a downtown hotel--is being reborn in the form of a Courtyard by Marriott, set to open in a year. Also downtown, the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center's expansion is taking form and could open in the fall.

Complementing these are some practical improvements: Two new hospitals are under construction. MediCorp's Stafford Hospital Center rises near the county courthouse and should open by March 2009, while HCA's Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center near Massaponax could follow a year later. As for shopping, the renovation of Spotsylvania Towne Centre proceeds, and a high-end grocery store, Wegmans, will arrive in 2009 in Celebrate Virginia South. The Rappahannock Area YMCA is expanding into King George and Caroline counties and North Stafford. The Cal Ripken Baseball program is on the way and will build fields near the Bragg Hill area.

All of these improvements (plus some unmentioned, such as the Rappahannock River easement that saved 4,200 acres of city land) bode well for the community. The explosive population growth of the last two decades demands an increase in amenities. There's more to be done, but progress in some areas has occurred thanks to local leaders who saw the need and acted. It's easy to gripe--let's count some blessings.

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