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A coalition of 17 conservation groups from Loudoun, Fauquier and beyond are banding together to fight a high-end resort pitched near the convergence of Loudoun, Fauquier and Clarke counties.
The Eastwind Blue Ridge project calls for 40 hotel rooms, an 88-seat restaurant and a standalone spa on 147 acres near Route 50 and Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway, on the southern slope of Paris Mountain.
The proposal from Fairfax-based Mountain Resort LLC and New York-based Eastwind Hotels is in the pre-application phase in Loudoun County. Developers hope for final approval from county officials in the first quarter of next year.
The new preservation group, the Paris Mountain Alliance, is undertaking an outreach and fundraising campaign to push back against the resort. Initiated by Friends of Blue Ridge Mountains, the alliance includes the Piedmont Environmental Council, Citizens for Fauquier County, Save Rural Loudoun, Land Trust of Virginia, the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association, Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and 10 other groups.
“The alliance partners have united to oppose the construction of a hotel-restaurant-spa complex overlooking Fauquier’s Crooked Run Valley near the crest of the historic Ashby Gap into the Shenandoah Valley,” the group said in a news release.
According to opponents, the developers intend to market to young couples an exclusive boutique inn with rooms running $400 to $600 per night. Draft plans, shared in the pre-application packet with Loudoun staff, show a cluster of structures, parking lots, wells and septic located on the Loudoun County parcels. A target completion date for construction is listed as spring 2028.
In opposing Eastwind, Dulany Morison, chair emeritus of the Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area Association, said the surrounding area “is central to Virginia’s and the nation’s history, providing access to a Native American seasonal route and transformed by colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries into a primary means of trade and travel.”
“We have worked tirelessly to protect this important corridor through traffic calming and the defeat of misguided development proposals in Aldie and Upperville, including a proposed resort,” Morison said in the release. “We will do the same now.”
The developers plan to use the single-lane Mount Weather Road from westbound U.S. Route 50 as the sole point of access and route all exiting traffic onto Virginia Route 601/Blue Ridge Mountain Road in Clarke County just south of the access to the Appalachian Trail.
“That rural road is already over-burdened,” the alliance said.
“Eastwind Blue Ridge will significantly impact public conservation and recreation values in our region,” said Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council. “Paris Mountain is a conservation priority for its ecological, cultural, historical, and scenic significance. The breadth of this alliance reflects how deeply our communities care about this singular place, and our determination to prevent its commercialization is a groundswell that is growing by the day.”
Eastwind – which currently runs three resorts, two in the Catskills and one the Adirondacks in New York – says the resort “will deliver significant, long-term economic benefits to Loudoun County by creating jobs, generating tax revenue, and strengthening the local tourism economy,” according to documents submitted to the county.
They estimate returning over $500,000 annually in local revenue through property and lodging taxes.
Paris Mountain Resort LLC purchased the property in April for $2.2 million, according to Loudoun County land records.
