The preliminary design is nearly complete for a satellite campus of the Virginia Museum of Natural History at the corner of Main Street and Arch Avenue in Waynesboro.
On Monday night, City Council will get an update on the project from VMNH Executive Director Dr. Joe Keiper at its regular meeting.
According to a brief included with the July 28 council agenda, VMNH has requested that construction funding for the 28,000-square-foot facility be included in the 2027 Virginia capital pool budget.
Partners for the project, including the City of Waynesboro and VMNH, were unsuccessful lobbying the governor’s office and Virginia General Assembly members to include funding in the 2025 budget, and as a result, chose not to submit a capital request or seek a budget amendment during the session.
Construction funding was included in the Virginia budget in 2020, but the monies were later reallocated to support COVID-19 response efforts in the state.
Keiper told AFP in January that they were focused on completing the design work and looked “forward to working with all of our community partners to achieve groundbreaking for the VMNH-Waynesboro campus.”
At the time, City Manager Mike Hamp said that while the lobbying results were “disappointing,” the museum project still had support in the General Assembly and executive branch.
The VMNH Foundation and museum have secured approximately $2.5 million in cash and commitments in recent years for the natural science interpretation facility downtown. The price tag for the museum is estimated at more than $25 million.
Once construction begins, the campus will take approximately two years to complete.
The facility would include exhibits, environmental classrooms with opportunities for K-12 students, an interactive area for early childhood learning and viewable laboratories where curators and university partners may work and learn. Exhibits will focus on the natural history of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge region.
The feasibility study predicted the center would attract between 45,000 and 85,000 visitors per year including residents and tourists traveling on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive.
“The development of the Virginia Museum of Natural History – Waynesboro Campus would provide an incredible economic and cultural benefit to Waynesboro’s downtown, the community generally and the region,” said Hamp, in the agenda brief.
No action is requested at Monday’s meeting. The presentation is for informational purposes only.
VMNH Waynesboro campus timeline
- 2011: Planning for the museum in Waynesboro dates back more than a decade, to 2011.
- 2018: Waynesboro City Council passes a resolution supporting the project and an investment totaling $1 million in combined direct financial contribution, in-kind support and real property.
- 2020: Funding for the museum was included in the state budget in 2020, but state funds were ultimately reallocated to support the COVID-19 response in the state. At the time, Greg Hitchin, the director of economic development and tourism, told AFP that he was “pretty confident” that the project would move forward some time in 2023 with a projected opening in 2025.
- 2022: Museum officials announced they had selected an architecture firm to create designs for the facility and to see the construction project through to completion. The groundbreaking was projected in 2024.
- 2023: In October 2023, the construction start date was pushed back to 2025 as museum officials waited to hear if the project was included in the state’s capital planning fund. Hitchin told Waynesboro City Council that the campus could be open as early as 2026. While the museum awaits potential funding from the state, a mobile display unit was put in place in Constitution Park in 2023 to help the museum establish a presence in Waynesboro.
- 2024: In May 2024, City Manager Mike Hamp told AFP that “it will be necessary to adjust the timeline for the project” after the construction funding was not included in the budget for Virginia.
Project details
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Crystal Graham
