Nearly 1,000 acres of land at Virginia’s famous Fones Cliffs on the Rappahannock River will be put up for auction at a bankruptcy sale.
A listing by New York-based Auction Advisors puts the minimum bid for the property as $4.25 million in an auction to be held Nov. 3.
The 977-acre undeveloped property, which is currently owned by Virginia True Corporation, has been embroiled in difficulties since 2017, when the company purchased the property for $12 million from long-time owners the Diatomite Corporation of America.
Virginia True planned to develop a luxury golf course and resort on the property. In November 2017, however, Richmond County ordered the company to stop work after it cleared more than 13 acres of forested land near the cliffs without a permit. A lack of required stormwater controls at the site led to extensive erosion and landslides.
Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality subsequently issued three notices of violation to Virginia True, and the lawsuit was later referred to the Office of the Attorney General.
A document filed in bankruptcy court this August lists the company owing the state $200,000 related to “governmental enforcement action.”
A four-mile stretch of striking white cliffs on the