Blue Ridge Shores, VA

Blue Ridge Shores is a Louisa County CDP built around Lake Louisa, a 300-acre reservoir on Hickory Creek in the northern Virginia Piedmont. The community began in 1960, when the first dam filled the lake and a few cottages went up around it. Its streets wrap around the water instead of forming a traditional village center, with beaches, marinas, trails, courts, and boat access filling in the map. Hurricane Camille drained the lake in 1969 after the dam failed; the rebuilt dam was dedicated in 1970. Blue Ridge Shores is a planned lakeside place whose whole identity is tied to the waterline.