By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: April 24, 2008

Proposed plans to build a new parking lot in Nethers to serve one of the state’s most popular hiking spots are moving forward.

Citizens are invited to comment on a recently completed study regarding how nearby residents, wildlife and waterways will be affected by the construction of a new parking area to serve Old Rag Mountain hikers. This document also includes actions park officials plan to take to reduce these possible effects.

A meeting to gather comments from the community about the lot’s effects on its surrounding environment is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, April 25 at the Belle Meade Schoolhouse located at 353 F.T. Valley Road in Rappahannock County just past Etlan.

Officials hope the creation of a new parking area, off Nethers Road (Route 600) in Madison County, would improve the experience of both visitors to Shenandoah National Park and those living nearby in the Nethers area.

Issues related to visitor parking on the north side of Old Rag Mountain have plagued park officials for more than three decades. 

In the mid-1970s, after an increase of visitors to Shenandoah National Park through Nethers, a Route 600 resident leased out his cow pasture to the park to be used as a temporary parking area. This leased land was transformed into a 250-space gravel and grass lot (also known as Old Rag Parking area) that serves the majority of the mountain’s 50,000 visitors per year.

However, this lot’s distance from Old Rag Mountain’s nearby trailhead (about .8 miles) results in hikers walking along Nethers Road, sometimes causing noise and leaving trash behind, according to comments made by Nethers residents included in the parking lot study.

In 2007, park officials negotiated a 10-year extension of the existing lot’s lease, however it is unclear if the landowner will be willing to renew the lease in the future, according to Shenandoah National Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright.

The recently completed “environmental assessment” study – performed by Washington, D.C.-based environmental consultant Louis Berger along with park officials – examined the possibility of construction of a parking lot on a six-acre piece of land off Nethers Road that the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club purchased in the late 1990s.

The club – a volunteer organization that works to maintain and protect the Appalachian Trail and nearby lands – has said it would be willing to donate a 99-year lease to the park for the land to be used as a new parking lot. (Land can be donated to the park service however is it illegal for the park to use government funds to acquire additional land, according to officials.)

This study examined three possible solutions to providing sufficient parking in this area and found that the “environmentally preferred” option would be to construct a new approximately 140-160-space parking lot on this land and discontinue the use of the leased lot in Nethers as well as another lot with about a dozen spaces at the end of the road within the park’s boundaries (sometimes known as the Upper Lot).

“Environmentally preferred” refers to the solution “that causes the least damage to the biological and physical environment” and “best protects, preserves and enhances historic, cultural and natural resources,” according to the environmental assessment document.

The study also recommends that the park use a “seasonal reservation system,” which would require visitors to reserve a parking spot in advance to their visit to the park.

A trail would be created in a wooded area of land toward the rear of the new parking area, which would connect directly to the Nethers-side of Old Rag Ridge Trail, rather than requiring visitors to reach the trail by walking along Nethers Road.

“That would improve the visitor experience and improve the neighbors’ situation,” said Shenandoah National Park Backcountry, Wilderness and Trails Manager Steve Bair.

Although park officials support construction of the new parking lot, their preferred parking plan is somewhat different than the “environmentally preferred” solution. In an effort to maintain the numbers of parking spaces currently serving Old Rag Mountain hikers, park officials prefer to construct the new parking lot as well as keep the leased lot open, with a reduced number of available spots, according to Steve Bair.

“It is in the interest of park visitors to continue to provide the same level of parking,” which is about 262 spaces on the north side of the mountain, according to Bair. Park officials would also prefer that a parking reservation system not be used for the lots, Bair said.
As required by law, the study examined possible endangered species and archaeological sites that may be disturbed by construction of the new parking lot on the PATC-owned land.

In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the park it was concerned about the existence of an endangered orchid, known as small whorled pogonia, on this property. The study says that the Virginia Department of Conservation had previously concluded construction of the lot would not harm any endangered plants “due to the scope of the activity and the distance to the resources.” The department of conservation is currently conducting an updated review of the land regarding the effects on any endangered species, the document states. 

Officials also note that an archaeological survey of the PATC-owned land identified a “potentially significant archeological site in one location on the site,” where prehistoric artifacts, including Native American arrowheads, were discovered. Proposed construction on the property would avoid the section of land containing the artifacts, according to the study.

The public is allowed to comment on the document through May 28. The environmental assessment is available on-line at http://parkingplanning.nps.gov/shen or by writing to Superintendent, Shenandoah National Park, Attn: Old Rag Parking Lot, 3655 US Highway 211 East, Luray, VA 22835.