A campus campground is being planned that would be built by students this summer at the Rockbridge Creative Institute in Buena Vista.
City Council this past Thursday held a first reading on a proposed conditional use permit for the construction of 20 timber-frame canvas-covered “glamping” units. The Planning Commission earlier in the week recommended approval of the CUP.
Andrew Powell, RCI instructor, explained that his master building trade students are designing the timber-frame tent structures that will comprise the campground. The students are to construct the units for housing that will be used by students and visiting faculty.
RCI is a post-secondary trades school that was established three years ago under the tutelage of Ohio entrepreneur, educator and dentist Austin Rehl on 285 acres of steeply sloped land located off of Longhollow Road and 32nd Street.
When he appeared before City Council in 2023 to have the land rezoned form residential planned unit development (R-6) and general manufacturing (GM) to institutional (INST), Rehl explained that the school would be teaching building and other skilled trades in conjunction with agriculture on a work- ing farm. The first building on the property was a large house that overlooks much of Buena Vista from its high elevation.
A pavilion was built as a special events venue and cattle have been grazing on the farmland. A road, Meridian Parkway, has been developed through the property that provides access from 32nd Street. Special events such as weddings have been held. Students and staff have been staying in the house and overseeing the farm.
The next phase of RCI is to be a master building trades school overseen by Powell, who holds an architectural degree from the University of Tennessee.
“We are a new kind of trade school where students will come and they’ll reside on campus and they’re going to have to learn architecture, engineering and construction,” said Powell. “And they’ll have to design, build and construct a building on site in order to graduate. So when they graduate, they’ll have their associate’s degree in architecture. They’ll have their general contractor’s license and they will have started their [own] business.”
It’s to be a three-year program. The plan is to have classes of 25 building trades students each year so that there will be 75 students enrolled in the program by the third year. When students graduate, “They’ll have everything they need to immediately start running their own construction company,” he said.
Sturdy, durable construction is to be emphasized. Commercial structures are frequently built in America to last only 20 or so years, he said, while the techniques his students will be employing will result in building structures that can last thousands of years.
He envisions the RCI campus eventually being built out much like a “small European village … instead of building two large buildings like a school would normally be. We’ll have lots of little cottages … resembling chateaus … arranged around the plaza.” As an example of what might be offered through RCI’s “audacious” long-range plans, he said, there could be “a restaurant where we’ll have culinary arts classes.”
RCI remains in its formative stages. There have been issues with the development, especially storm water management, with runoff adversely affecting residences below the property on 32nd Street.
David Truslow, who owns three houses on 32nd Street, including one that he and his family live in, said the road building and subsequent storms “caused three different floods in my house and properties. And every time I would get told, we’ll go fix it, we’re going to fix it. But it never got fixed until two and a half years later.”
The road continues to be in rough shape but Rehl has assured city officials that it will be brought into good condition by July 1.
A second reading on the ordinance to approve a CUP for the campground is scheduled for City Council’s next regular meeting on June 3.
