ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9605310018
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
The man behind the Rockbridge area's plan for a major new industrial park is David Kleppinger, a community planner and former member of Williamsburg's City Council.
Kleppinger was hired in April as executive director of the Rockbridge Area Economic Development Commission. It markets Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington to industry.
Kleppinger also will direct an industrial development authority being created by the three governments.
Kleppinger left politics and a planning consultancy business to accept the job. He did so despite having announced his intention to seek another term as a Williamsburg councilman. His departure was a surprise to that community.
"He was a shoe-in for re-election," said W.C. O'Donovan, who edits the Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg's twice-weekly newspaper.
But his move to Rockbridge County was less surprising. Kleppinger, 44, knew the Rockbridge area from having vacationed there. After he applied for the commission job, he accepted an invitation to interview partly because he thought he would enjoy another visit to Lexington.
Local leaders offered him the job and he took it because "I just decided it was time for me to make a change in my career," he said in an interview.
Before becoming self-employed as a community planner, Kleppinger directed economic development in Charles City County, Va., from 1984 to 1989. He was planning director in New Kent County from 1982 to 1984 and senior planner in York County from 1980 to 1981. All three counties are on the lower peninsula between Richmond and Williamsburg.
The challenge of his new job? "I'm hired as an agent of change in an area where there's certainly strong sentiment they don't want change. So the question is, how can we manage the change that is occurring in a way that does not compromise the character of the area?"
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