What to do with Uniontown? Staunton wants to hear from property owners, residents

STAUNTON — “Nobody knew that as those buildings aged and fell apart and if people left, they would disappear, as did the neighborhood.”

Ophie Kier, former Staunton vice mayor and founder of Building Bridges for the Greater Good, said in March before city council that he was embarrassed that he didn’t know what had happened to Uniontown. Kier grew up in Staunton and had friends who lived in the area, but never knew the community was disappearing.

“The issue was never addressed the way it is now,” Kier said in an interview in March with The News Leader.

Staunton’s work into Uniontown has so far been commissioning a water and sewer study to figure out how to restore service that was lost to the area throughout the years and a small area plan for what to do with Uniontown when it started coming back to life.

Now, the city is hoping for more input from Uniontown residents and property owners, along with any person who has an interest in Uniontown’s revitalization. To that end, Staunton has launched a survey accessible on the city’s website for feedback. The survey is also on a dedicated landing page for Uniontown that tracks the work the city does on the area as it progresses.

According to a press release from the city, the planning process began in March and will continue through July when the small area plan is expected to be done. That process includes monthly meetings of a steering committee consisting of property owners, current and former residents, and key stakeholders.

"Moving forward with a clear vision and goals for Uniontown, guided by the residents and owners, is the first step toward the revitalization of this once thriving community,” said councilor Brad Arrowood in the press release.

Kier was asked to be a part of the committee, and he believes that the input of the residents of the once vibrant historic Black community is integral to the process. The community has not had a sense of self-determination in Uniontown, and Kier believes they need to have a say in what happens in the future.

“If we’re going to have a community that respects every single one of us living here, that’s definitely a must,” Kier said prior to joining the steering committee.

“I would hate to see it continue to sit there like it is. I would also hate to see a ton of apartments and stuff coming up out of the ground down there,” Kier said. At the center of the whole conversation are the desires of the residents of Uniontown and their descendants, who were left out of the conversation while the area was rezoned in the 1960s from residential to light industrial, preventing any additions or new homes from being built. The demolition of the National Avenue bridge in the early 2000s severed their water service, serving as a death knell for the once-thriving community. At its peak, there were over 60 households living in Uniontown with shops, a church, and a school house. Today, there are only 11, according to Kier.

“You go down that street and see trees growing up through houses, you see where a foundation was, that’s appalling,” Kier said.

Kier, who works in the development industry, has his own idea of what can bring Uniontown back to life, but he recognizes that the community isn’t a monolith. Every person, especially those that own property or are descendants of property owners in Uniontown, has their own ideas and, in some cases, apprehension about Uniontown’s future.

According to Kier, some residents are looking for a way to revitalize the neighborhood in order to sell the property due to financial circumstances. Some land in a camp that doesn’t want the city to touch their lands after years of neglect. Others want to see a progressive solution to what’s happened there.

Kier isn’t a former resident of Uniontown, but he has his own vision of what could be done with the area. A public-private partnership to encourage redevelopment is one part of his plan, and draws on other areas in Staunton that have benefitted from similar agreements. Kier pointed out Hotel 24 South, formerly the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, which was renovated through a partnership with a national builder, the owners of the hotel, and the city. Similar arrangements to help developers have been struck in areas like Staunton Crossing and The Villages, and Kier believes a similar idea could work here. He understands the city’s only real job in the Uniontown process is providing water and sewage service, not to rehabilitate housing, but he believes developers and organizations like Habitat for Humanity can be brought in to help.

Along with that public-private partnership, Kier’s list of actions includes restoring water and sewer service, reconstructing the National Avenue bridge, rezoning the area to residential from light industrial, repairing roads, installing street lights, and getting a historical designation for Uniontown. He also has loftier ideas of rebuilding the former schoolhouse as a community center and museum similar to the Rosenwald School in Waynesboro

While that’s a long list, Kier believes that any real investment in the area will take upwards of 10 years, and cost the city in the range of $10 million to $20 million. But, as mentioned before, no community is a monolith, and the reaction to Kier’s plan in March had not been overwhelmingly positive. The community there is reluctant to work with a city that has neglected them for years.

“Let’s face it, I mean, I was government at one point,” Kier said in March.

Even without following Kier’s proposed ideas, there’s plenty that needs to be worked out about the future of Uniontown. When water and sewer are inevitably run to the area and services are restored, Kier said that hook-up costs can be up to $20,000. That’s a sum that some residents wouldn’t be able to be afford. The property in the area is assessed at an incredibly low rate, in some cases as low as $2,000. Kier’s fear is that the properties will be “stolen” by investors that offer prices close to those investment figure. Figuring out how to navigate those financial issues without burdening the property owners is part of Kier’s desire to make Uniontown residents “whole” again.

The funding is starting to take form, as city council included a line item in their adopted budget for fiscal year 2024 to start building up reserves for projects including Uniontown, revitalization of the West End, and the Staunton library. Winning back the trust of Uniontown residents is a long process, and the survey will form one point of trying to get input from those people. In the end, the work required in Uniontown is part of righting a historical wrong to Kier.

“You can’t drive through any other area of Staunton and see what you see there,” he said.

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—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: What to do with Uniontown? Staunton wants to hear from property owners, residents