Residents and local groups weigh uncertainty as longtime land arrangements are revisited

For nearly two centuries, the Miller family has been Sperryville’s dominant landowner, farming and stewarding 845 acres of Rappahannock countryside while quietly supporting the community and civic life. 

That era is shifting.

Control has passed to a new generation of Millers — none of whom live in the county — and with the change comes a sweeping reset. Family land is going up for sale. Longstanding arrangements are being revisited. Renters and partners face new demands. 

A Virginia family once synonymous with continuity and conservation is now driving rapid change, often accompanied by pressure and disruption. 

Clifford Miller III, whose family owned Mount Vernon Farm for eight generations since 1827, now lives at a Richmond retirement community, returning often to his beloved Rappahannock. His daughter, Laura Miller Meyers, manages Miller Properties LC, from Richmond. Other partners include her brother Clifford Miller IV in California, and three first cousins, children of Cliff Miller’s sister Lizora Yonce. The new configuration took shape in 2024, but the impact of the shift became evident in the past six months. 

Across Sperryville, the effects are unfolding. 

Rappahannock Nature Camp relocates

Waterpenny Farm, which leases 29 acres from Miller Properties to grow organic vegetables, was forced to relocate the Rappahannock Nature Camp, ahead of this summer’s opening. Farmers Rachel Bynum and Eric Plaksin are working to resolve additional complications that have emerged under the new leadership at Miller Properties. Bynum runs the summer camp and had planned to host the program at Waterpenny. The lease for Waterpenny contains language stating the farm would be used at times for environmental and agricultural education. 

Sperryville trail section closes, ‘For Sale’ signs go up

Miller Properties required the Sperryville Community Alliance to close a section of the Sperryville River Trail days before last Saturday’s annual community SperryFest, after Meyers cited the risk of injury from golf balls from a nearby course. Proposals to add safety features — and reopen the path — were rejected, alliance leaders said. 

Miller Properties also withdrew a parking arrangement for SperryFest on a 17-acre plot across the road from The Sperryville Schoolhouse days before it was to be held. “For Sale” signs appeared on the parcel the day before the festival.

Company seeks zoning change for new build

Miller Properties has filed for a zoning exception with the Rappahannock County Zoning Administrator to allow for an additional home to be built at the end of an unpaved road that runs through Waterpenny Farm east of Route 211. The application explains that “Miller Properties desires to market the property and ensure that a future owner has the option to construct a larger residence at the end of the existing private lane (Waterpenny Lane).” 

A letter accompanying the application said that the company also plans to submit a request to subdivide the 83-acre parcel, including the 29 acres rented to Bynum and Plaksin. Bynum said they don’t know what lies ahead for the larger plot that contains the land they currently lease and farm.  

Last October, Miller Properties sold 38.5 acres along Route 522 to landowner and businessman H.B. Wood for $860,000. The sale could result in the largest housing development in decades in Sperryville, though Wood said he is considering options that would align with the village’s character.

Cliff Miller III on his property in Sperryville in 2020 with Mt. Vernon Farm in the background.(Photo/Luke Christopher)

Community reacts: ‘It’s so unexpected’

The steady drumbeat of change has left residents balancing gratitude for past generosity with current unease.

“Sperryville wouldn’t be what it is today without the Millers,” said Kerry Sutten, Sperryville business owner and member of the Sperryville Community Alliance. 

A decade back, when Sutten, with help from the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection, sought support for what became the 1.5 mile Sperryville River Trail, the first organizational meeting was held at Mount Vernon Farm, then the longtime Miller family home. Cliff Miller III led the way in making sections of privately-owned land available for the trail. 

Miller’s son Cliff Miller IV, led the push to create the golf course, and also participated in planning the nearby Sperryville trail. In 2021, the younger Miller unsuccessfully ran for the Board of Supervisors seat held by Christine Smith. Two years later, he returned with his wife and daughter to California, where he had lived before a chapter in Rappahannock. Following his move to California, Miller sold The Sperryville Schoolhouse and Headmaster’s Pub which he had renovated while in Virginia. 

Following Meyers’ demand that part of the path be placed off limits to foot traffic, Sutten said, “My big concern now is how we keep this community asset alive.” 

Another town resident, insisting on anonymity, said about the young Millers’ various actions: “It’s shocking. People are somewhat dazed because it’s so unexpected.” 

The family itself offers few insights in understanding the divergent patterns of the old Millers and the new Millers. Cliff Miller III deferred questions on recent developments to his daughter, praising her management of the family firm. Meyers, for her part, declined to comment on any of the controversies and land sales that are causing county consternation.

Bynum is relieved to have secured a new location for the Rappahannock Nature Camp at Revival Springs, a 17-acre property at the confluence of the North Fork of the Thornton and Piney rivers. Her sole statement about Miller Properties: “We deeply value our lease and the relationship we’ve had with the Millers; we want to maintain that relationship.” 

Others express hopeful sentiments. Sally-Anne Andrew raised funds and secured donations of plant material and mulch to design a “fairy garden” along the Miller-owned segment of the Sperryville trail that’s now been closed. 

When floods ravaged the space last year, Andrew rebuilt it. She noted that with new leadership at Miller Properties, “the tides are changing,” adding a hopeful note: “We believe that the magic continues to unfold behind the red tape.” 

Meanwhile, she is exploring options for relocating the garden. 

Eric Plaksin, co-owner of Waterpenny Farm, in Sperryville, Va. (Photo/Luke Christopher)

Uncertain future for Waterpenny Farm

The greatest impact for now centers on Waterpenny and the family that lives there and runs the vegetable enterprise, which has about 70 shareholders, and hundreds of buyers that set up pay-in-advance commitments or walk in to purchase tomatoes, eggplants, greens and flowers. Off the farm, Bynum is serving her ninth year on the county School Board, where she is currently vice chair. Her community of support in the county is loyal and large. 

Both Miller Properties and Waterpenny are being advised by lawyers, and neither wishes to disclose information about discussions involving the farm’s lease. 

What Bynum chose to share was a piece of history — an article she had composed in 2007 for NewFarm.org, a web platform managed by the Rodale Institute. In it she described herself and Plaksin, at 25, as aspiring farmers, searching, without success, for affordable land they could till. The story took a turn when “a man named Cliff Miller” entered the picture. Following a two-year trial, a solid business relationship materialized in a 40-year lease. The connection went beyond the farming lease. The couple needed a house, and Miller lent the funds to build it. (The loan is now almost fully repaid.) 

At the conclusion of the article, Bynums writes, “We’re quite happy with the way it turned out, and feel lucky to be able to be farmers here. If we stay until our lease ends in 2044, we’ll both be 71 years old and we’ll have run Waterpenny Farm for 45 years.” She also expressed the hope that other young farmers might secure their own economic stability by connecting with landowners like Miller, who might be interested in seeing their property actively farmed. 

Bynum and Plaksin’s many supporters worry that their aspiration for 2044 may not survive the generational change at Miller Properties. But the couple remains busy. In addition to relocating the nature camp, they’re preparing for their 25th annual Rappahannock Spring Plant Sale at Waterpenny Farm this Saturday (May 2), and trekking their produce to farmers’ markets in Arlington, Va. and Takoma Park, Md. 

The family home, transformed into the Inn at Mount Vernon Farm in 2010, and scrupulously cared for by the much-loved Lillian Aylor, has been sold, along with about two surrounding acres, and is now a private home. 

Cliff Miller III owns and regularly visits a smaller house uphill from the family’s former home. He also owns the family’s historic barns, including a 235-foot dairy barn that in recent years has been rented out for weddings and large parties. Within the property, 604 acres rest in conservation easement, standing as the remaining continuity in a fast-changing map. 

“Change happens,” said Sutten, the Sperryville business owner and civic leader. “We’ve been spoiled. We got used to the fact that Miller senior has been so generous with everything.”