Cumberland County
Comprehensive Plan
Cumberland County, VA
Though surrounded by recent– and rapid– metropolitan growth, Cumberland County maintains a strong sense of identity. Its connection to nature provides residents and visitors alike with active, sprawling farms, quiet trails, historic architecture, and beautiful parks. These features highlight Cumberland’s history and character while maintaining its image as a beautiful, quiet, and rural bastion between pockets of rapid urban development. However, this nearby development poses a challenge to Cumberland’s growth and preservation of character– a challenge Summit’s planning department was eager to address.
With a turnaround of only 11 months from contract signing to plan adoption, the Cumberland County Comprehensive Plan is a shining example of Summit’s capabilities as a planning department. From project kickoff to closeout, our planners worked extensively alongside the County to ensure the Plan would be true to Cumberland County’s vision and values. The result was a Plan built from community input and expounded on with knowledge and data, crafting a living document detailing recommendations for land use, transportation, and other subjects of public interest without compromising Cumberland’s rural nature and community-oriented charm.
Our team collected a large portion of this input through substantial community outreach. Student, faculty, and agricultural focus groups, community socials, and event attendance– including a survey booth set up at Cumberland’s Juneteenth event– represent a small portion of this outreach. We also developed an online survey and curated a web presence with a website designed and maintained in-house as part of this outreach effort. The result was a list of clearly defined goals grouped under four prevailing themes:
- Developing village centers;
- Creating opportunities for residents;
- Fostering stewardship of the community;
- Preserving Cumberland’s environmental quality;
These themes encompass more specific goals, such as fostering a community identity, utilizing the land effectively, developing schools and public utilities, and improving housing opportunities– all of which were accounted for, with substantial recommendations, in creating the Comprehensive Plan. Overall, the Plan was crafted on time, within budget, and with the welfare of residents in mind– an endeavor illustrating our team’s significant efforts to produce a document that satisfies the needs of the community.
