Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
PUBLIC SPEAKS ON WAL-MART
Public hearing on a proposed Wal-Mart near the Wilderness battlefield in Orange County draws a big crowd.
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
May 22, 2009
A public hearing last night on a proposal to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Wilderness Battlefield park drew a big crowd, but little noise and no vote.
About 200 people turned out for the Orange County Planning Commission hearing on a special-use permit to build the Supercenter off State Route 3. A total of 73 people spoke, with opponents outnumbering supporters about 2-to-1.
Almost all of the foes said they do not oppose a Wal-Mart store in the county but think the proposed location would negatively affect the Civil War battlefield.
Supporters said the county needs the shopping, jobs and tax revenue the retail center would bring.
The audience sat quietly while Wal-Mart attorney Tom Kleine presented the retail giant's plan for a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter on 19.5 acres north of the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20.
The application also calls for three other parcels with a total of 98,750 square feet of retail, service and restaurant space on 14.5 acres.
The crowd also remained silent as speakers came forward to voice opinions on the proposal. About three-quarters of the crowd had drifted away by 10:30 p.m.
The county's staff has recommended approval of the permit application, but planning commissioners recessed around 11:10 p.m. without taking a vote.
"We've been thinking about this for over a year," said Planning Commission member Bill Speiden. "We need to consider all the information before us."
The commission agreed to meet June 11 to discuss the permit further. Its recommendation goes to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision.
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JDC Ventures is seeking a special-use permit to build a 138,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter on 19.5 acres north of the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. The application also covers three other parcels with a total of 98,750 square feet of retail, service and restaurant space on 14.5 acres. The balance of the 51.6- acre property is largely in a flood plain and not proposed for development.
Preservationists say a Supercenter and its traffic would destroy the ambiance of the nearby Civil War battlefield park. Supporters note that the land has long been zoned commercial and that the area is already the site of a Sheetz and other retail stores.
Eric
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
ORANGE GOT STATE INPUT, BUT MISSED 'RED FLAGS'
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.
May 22, 2009
When the director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources wrote to Orange County's Planning Commission about a proposal to build a Wal-Mart in the Wilderness battlefield area, she was not aware that her staff had met with county officials earlier this year.
In her letter Wednesday to commission Chairman Will Likins, DHR Director Kathleen Kilpatrick took issue with a county report that said its staffers had reviewed DHR files and maps and confirmed that "there are no known significant resources" on the Wal-Mart tract. The county planning staff has recommended approval of a special-use permit for a Supercenter off State Route 3.
In her letter, Kilpatrick said the proposed Supercenter would fall on Wilderness battlefield land and would have a "serious adverse effect" on the battlefield national park.
She also said Orange staffers had not consulted her agency.
Orange Community Development Director David Grover and Director of Strategic Planning Deborah Kendall met with DHR Archivist Quatro Hubbard and staffers Ronald Grayson and Susan Smead on Feb. 5 in Richmond.
Kilpatrick said she wasn't aware of that visit until yesterday.
"My staff indicates that they copied maps and got other information," she said. "We provided appropriate data and guidance to the county that should have raised red flags."
The red flags included information that a federal commission had laid out a large area north of State Route 3, where Wal-Mart wants to locate, as a study area of the Wilderness battlefield for possible inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, she said.
Grover said a report commissioned by the developer of the Wal-Mart project, JDC Ventures, said the land was in a study area and deemed to be eligible for the National Register, but also said there was nothing of significance on the land.
Grover said Hubbard, the DHR archivist, "seemed troubled" that the archeological study by Dovetail Resources didn't refer to the 2001 DHR publication "The Official Virginia Civil War battlefield Guide."
"The problem is the state thinks it's significant, although a detailed study has never been done of the area," Grover said. "Obviously, Orange County needs to have an historic resources study done.
"The presumption is if the land is in a study area it's automatically historic. It gives opponents of development the right to say it's significant. But it's private land, and the owners have the right to do what they want with it within the confines of the zoning ordinance."
Part of the 51.5 commercially zoned acres that JDC Ventures wants to develop lies in a wetland that will be put into a conservation easement and not built on.
To build on that land, the developer would have had to go through a federal environmental review that would have triggered a more official consultation with DHR.
As it stands, however, the state apparently has no authority over use of the land.
"This is a matter for the local government to decide," Kilpatrick said. "Our job is to provide information."
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Cumulative impacts, cumulative impacts, cumulative impacts...
State criticizes Wal-Mart report
State agency faults county staff report to Orange Planning Commission on Wilderness Wal-Mart
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
May 21, 2009
Virginia officials want "to set the record straight" about a proposed Wal-Mart's impact on the Wilderness battlefield.
Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, wrote the Orange County Planning Commission yesterday after learning that the county's planning staff "appears to suggest" that the Wal-Mart site "is not historically significant."
The Orange Planning Commission will hold a public hearing tonight on JDC Ventures' request for a special-use permit to build a 138,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter and other retail stores north of State Routes 3 and 20.
"Construction of a Wal-Mart facility at the scale and on the site proposed will, in our professional judgment, have a serious adverse effect both on the Wilderness Battlefield and on the National Park," Kilpatrick wrote in a letter to commission Chairman Will Likins, who could not be reached for comment last night.
The staff report, which recommends granting the permit, says staffers reviewed VDHR files and maps and confirmed with VDHR that "there are no known significant resources" on the Wal-Mart tract. The report states the site is in "the near vicinity" of the Wilderness battlefield.
Kilpatrick took issue with those conclusions. "Please be advised that the proposed Wal-Mart site is located entirely within the boundaries of the Wilderness Battlefield," she wrote.
Of 10,500 sites identified by the federal Civil War Sites Advisory Commission, only 45 were ranked "A" as having decisively influenced a military campaign and directly affected the course of the war, Kilpatrick noted. Wilderness, "is counted among this very elite class of national battlefields for possessing the highest level of historical significance and meriting the highest priority for preservation."
The 51.6-acre Wal-Mart site is "clearly eligible" for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, along with the rest of the battlefield, she said.
Orange Board of Supervisors Chairman Lee Frame said last night that he didn't see the letter until after the close of business yesterday.
"I'm really not in a position to say anything about it until I have a chance to go over it and discuss it in detail with [Community Development Director David] Grover," he said. "I'll be talking with him [today]."
Grover could not be reached last night.
Late yesterday, Kilpatrick said VDHR recognizes that it's up to local officials to decide the Wal-Mart land-use issue, but the department wanted to make sure Orange has accurate data. She responded after DHR became aware Monday of statements in the planners' report.
"The property is important, it is historic, and we felt that information was absolutely critical to the decision-making," she said.
Robert Carter, director of DHR's Community Services Division, said Orange officials "did not send us information about this project and ask us to comment."
But County Attorney Sharon Pandak said Orange officials did talk with DHR.
"The county staff met with DHR in Richmond months ago," she said, "and it's my understanding that DHR didn't raise any issues in respect to Wal-Mart at that time.
"We have a real sense of dismay since we initiated contact with them. It's very troubling that they are only now bringing this to the Planning Commission, but if DHR wants to come up and meet with our staff, the county is receptive."
Kilpatrick said a senior DHR staff member will attend tonight's meeting should the commissioners have questions, she said.
Bill Speiden, a longtime Planning Commission member and its former chairman, welcomes that.
"The land has been zoned commercial since 1973 and apparently known to be part of the battlefield since 1993," he said. "Why has it not been put on the National Register? These are questions that need to be answered."
Last night, Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris repeated the company's prior statements that its store site isn't on the battlefield and won't harm the nearby national park.
"It gets into a matter of semantics," he said. "Are we talking about the Wilderness battlefield park or a 1993 study that was done?
"What that fails to take into account is that there are 4,000 homes in Lake of the Woods that are abutting the battlefield, 1,800 homes in the other direction that are abutting the battlefield, and all of the other commercial strip development that's there right now."
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WHAT: Orange County Planning Commission public hearing on proposed Wilderness Wal-Mart
WHEN: 7 tonight, Prospect Heights Middle, 202 Dailey Drive, Orange. Building opens at 6 p.m.
RULES: Speakers must sign up and will be called on in the order in which they signed up. They will have three minutes to speak. Commissioners will not answer questions or engage in conversation with speakers.
ONLINE: Check out details at orangecountyva.gov, Wal-Mart's views at orange walmart.com and preservationists' views at wilderness walmart.com.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Wilderness picks up new advocate GROUP ANNOUNCES OTHER ENDANGERED SITES
Wal-Mart plan puts Wilderness battlefield among state's at-risk historic sites, Preservation Virginia says
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
May 19, 2009
America's oldest statewide preservation group has just faced off against the world's biggest retailer, doing battle in Orange County.
Preservation Virginia, which has saved Jamestown and dozens of other historic sites from ruin, believes building a Wal-Mart at The Wilderness is a bad idea.
The Arkansas company's plan for a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter there risks ruining visitors' experiences at the Civil War battlefield in eastern Orange, the group's chief said yesterday.
Executive Director Elizabeth Kostelny announced that Preservation Virginia has named the Wilderness battlefield to Preservation Virginia's 2009 list of the state's nine most-endangered historic sites.
Kostelny said the 3,000-member group joins with the historians, congressmen, celebrities and ordinary people who oppose putting the Wal-Mart at Routes 3 and 20, across from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
"The proposed Wal-Mart would degrade the rural character of the battlefield, promote commercial sprawl, and drastically increase traffic through the heart of the park," Kostelny said.
She spoke at Ellwood, a historic house on the Civil War battlefield less than a mile from the store's site. The retailer's tract, which would include the Supercenter and three smaller stores, is less than a quarter mile from the park.
In all, the retail center would total 240,000 square feet on 52 acres, Kostelny said. She noted that the Wal-Mart site is within the historic limits of the battlefield, as determined by a federal commission. More than 160,000 troops fought--with 29,000 killed or wounded--in the Battle of the Wilderness, waged 145 years ago this month.
"Protection of the battlefield and the setting of the national park is a critical concern for Virginians," Kostelny said. "Annually, the battlefield draws 170,000 visitors to Orange County, generating sustainable economic activity through heritage tourism."
The Wilderness is where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, first met in battle on May 5-6, 1864. And it saw Grant launch the relentless campaign that ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox 11 months later.
Near Wal-Mart's site, the junction of the old Germanna Plank Road (modern Route 3) and historic Orange Turnpike "is key to understanding the battle and how it transformed the Civil War," Kostelny said.
"The intrusion of a new Wal-Mart store, in an area already served by other branches of the same chain, would irrevocably harm a historic site of national significance."
The battlefield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, she noted.
On Thursday night, the county Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Wal-Mart's plan. The hearing is at 7 p.m. at Prospect Heights Middle School.
Wal-Mart says its store won't harm the battlefield. Its spokesmen have noted the area next to the park already has a McDonald's, two convenience stores and two strip retail centers.
Some Orange officials have said their rural county needs the jobs and tax money the store would generate.
Zann Miner, president of the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, said "we are not opposed to free enterprise or to Wal-Mart building a store in Orange County
"Ours is a simple request: Wal-Mart executives, join with us in our effort to protect and preserve our nation's heritage--the story of thousands of Americans, whose descendants may shop at Wal-Mart. Support this national treasure by finding a more suitable location for your new store."
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Eric,Originally posted by Dignann View Post
Absolutely! The "outsiders" and "come heres" can often influence the "from heres" and the local citizens who do vote that may or may not be aware of the importance of a piece of ground, structure, or history. Approximately a dozen of us will be down that way Saturday morning for a different reason, and it may do us all good to ease across VA Rte. 3 by the 7-11, make an unscheduled stop, and do the proverbial windshield survey of the proposed super deluxe Wally World (not an approved vendor) site with CWPT map in hand.
Do you recall if Orange County, Va., permits 3 or 5 minutes per speaker at their public hearings, assuming they have the usual time limit in place?Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
How long will it be before Wal-Mart abandons this store site to build a bigger store nearby?
Wal-Mart "greyfields" study
26,699,678 SQUARE FEET of empty WAL-MARTS in the US (2005 data)
Wal-Mart "Facts"
The thought of a new Wal-Mart anywhere depresses me.Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Drew,
The critical piece of date missing is the first item of information you state after your name. Being out-of-county means you are not a voter. When the decision to be made is substantial sales tax revenue versus history you can look back years from now with the satisfaction that you "fought the good fight."Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
All
For those interested or able to attending the public hearing. It will be a first come first serve basis for speakers. A sign up sheet will be available at the front once the doors open. Its my goal to be there very early, I have scoured the County Business Patterns, Comprehensive Plans & Census data and Im ready to hit the BOS (for a second time) with straight planning data to hopefully scare them senseless with their own statistics. Please Pm me on the side if you intend to attend.
Just to add some humor. This is the first sentence post introduction in Orange County's Comprehensive Plan, Historic Preservation/History Section.
"Many of the county’s important historic resources are at risk."
These are also the tourism numbers as reported in 2004
Orange County Visitors Centers 8,515
James Madison’s Montpelier 41,319
James Madison Museum 4,481
Civil War Museum 3,470
Orange County Historical Society 226
Wilderness Battlefield 170,908
Wineries 60,000Last edited by Busterbuttonboy; 05-13-2009, 09:14 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Some outstanding quotes in the article Eric sites - one of the best of it's kind I have see lately. As for the Disney plans - that was always complete lunacy. Here we have jobs and economic well being of a part of VA that needs a shot in the arm. But it does not need to come from still another Wal-Mart blighting hallowed ground.Originally posted by Dignann View Post
"The question for Wal-Mart, which has five stores within 20 miles of here, is whether it needs another store to be sited on this cathedral of sacrifice," Rep. Welch told the 150-some people assembled outdoors in the rain for the event.
Poe, a Republican, and Welch, a Democrat, said their appreciation for soldiers' sacrifice unites them on the Wilderness issue. "Those young men who died, many of them are still out there in graves known only by God," Poe said of the battlefield's many unmarked burials.
The proposed Supercenter is opposed by 250 of America's top historians, including David McCullough and James McPherson, and filmmaker Ken Burns.
Since last summer, Wal-Mart's proposal has stirred an outcry like that over The Walt Disney Co.'s 1994 plan to build a $650 million theme park within miles of the Manassas battlefield. Bowing to public pressure, the entertainment giant scrapped the project.
EricLast edited by DougCooper; 05-05-2009, 05:03 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Hopefully the board will make the right decision. It's a shame what they want to do there. It's bad enough already how much of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville are gone.
Happy to be a member of the CWPT though and doing what needs to be done.Leave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Actor joins foes of Orange Wal-Mart
On eve of battle's 145th anniversary, Duvall, lawmakers plea for preservation at The Wilderness
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
May 5, 2009
Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall added star power yesterday to the fierce fight over development at The Wilderness, weighing in for historic preservation.
The actor, speaking on the Civil War battlefield in Orange County, said he'll do whatever he can to help in "chasing out" a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed near the entrance to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Duvall spoke from the porch of Ellwood, a historic house where his ancestor Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee consoled wounded troops during the war. The Virginia resident was joined by two congressmen whose states' troops suffered great losses in the Battle of the Wilderness--fought 145 years ago today.
Duvall, who portrayed Lee in the movie "Gods and Generals," said he holds no grudge against Wal-Mart but believes in "capitalism with sensitivity."
Likewise, Reps. Peter Welch of Vermont and Ted Poe of Texas also said they don't oppose Wal-Mart's growth, just its choice of a tract on the edge of the battlefield for its 138,000-square-foot store and an associated retail center.
All three men at yesterday's press conference--joined by Zann Miner, president of the local Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield--urged the Arkansas-based retail giant to choose another site along State Route 3.
"The question for Wal-Mart, which has five stores within 20 miles of here, is whether it needs another store to be sited on this cathedral of sacrifice," Rep. Welch told the 150-some people assembled outdoors in the rain for the event.
Union and Confederate forces suffered 29,000 casualties in the May 5-6, 1864, engagement. The first face-off between Lee and the Union's Ulysses S. Grant, it launched the Overland Campaign, which eventually led to Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
"There were 160,000 troops, Union and Confederate, who fought in the Battle of the Wilderness," Poe said. "This is the number of troops that we have in Afghanistan and Iraq combined, on that one battlefield."
Earlier, the congressmen toured the battlefield with National Park Service historians and paid their respects to the places where their states' soldiers held hotly contested ground. Vermont and Texas each have placed granite monuments at those sites.
The Texans suffered horrific casualties, Poe said. In one of the war's most famous incidents, during brutal fighting at the Widow Tapp field, men of the Texas Brigade begged Lee to return to the rear so he wouldn't be killed. Then they rushed forward, losing 500 of 800 men in the charge.
Welch noted that the deadliest day in Vermont's history occurred at The Wilderness. Its soldiers suffered 1,234 casualties but kept Lee's Confederates from splitting the Union Army in two.
Poe, a Republican, and Welch, a Democrat, said their appreciation for soldiers' sacrifice unites them on the Wilderness issue. "Those young men who died, many of them are still out there in graves known only by God," Poe said of the battlefield's many unmarked burials.
On the way back to Ellwood, the touring lawmakers stopped at the McDonald's across Route 3 from Wal-Mart's 52-acre tract and hopped out for a closer look at the landscape. Both expressed concern that Wal-Mart's retail center plan will fuel more sprawl and overburden the national park's scenic two-lane roads with traffic.
The proposed Supercenter is opposed by 250 of America's top historians, including David McCullough and James McPherson, and filmmaker Ken Burns.
Since last summer, Wal-Mart's proposal has stirred an outcry like that over The Walt Disney Co.'s 1994 plan to build a $650 million theme park within miles of the Manassas battlefield. Bowing to public pressure, the entertainment giant scrapped the project.
Duvall referenced the battle against Disney's America, saying "Now we have Wal-Mart, you know, Wal-Mart with its deep pockets full of cash."
Wal-Mart issued a statement yesterday repeating earlier arguments for the store, primarily that the site has been zoned for commercial use for 24 years and that the Wilderness area already has strip retail development.
"From the beginning of this project, Wal-Mart has been very sensitive to ensuring that our development is respectful of the county's unique location and history," it said.
On May 21, Orange planners will hear public comment on Wal-Mart's plan. The county Board of Supervisors will decide its fate.
A majority of Orange supervisors have said the store will bring needed jobs and tax money to the rural county.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
My great-great grandfather Silas Glaspey was at the battle of the Wilderness with the 10th New Jersey. What an outrage!
HollerLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Wal-Mart vs. the Wilderness
By JAMES MCPHERSON
Princeton, N.J.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
In May 1864, two armies clashed in a desperate struggle for the course of our nation's history. The Battle of the Wilderness was a great turning point of the Civil War -- the first clash between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant and the beginning of the end for the beleaguered Confederacy. The fighting was so intense that the tangled underbrush caught fire, burning wounded soldiers alive.
To commemorate the bloody struggle, portions of the Wilderness -- which is near Locust Grove, Va., in Orange County -- were set aside as a national military park. However, just 21 percent of the battlefield is permanently protected; other key areas are privately held and vulnerable to development.
This vulnerability became apparent when Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced plans to build a 138,000-square-foot superstore on historically sensitive land directly across the road from the national park. The store would sit on a hill overlooking key parts of the battlefield, looming over a national treasure.
Preservationists are not opposed to Wal-Mart opening a superstore in the region. A coalition of national and local conservation groups has merely asked Wal-Mart to choose a different location. Together with more than 250 other historians, I signed a letter to the company in support of that idea. We wrote that "the Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved. Surely Wal-Mart can identify a site that would meet its needs without changing the very character of the battlefield."
"Wilderness Wal-Mart" supporters argue that because the proposed store site lies just beyond the park, it lacks historic significance, a profound misunderstanding of the nature of history. In the heat of battle, no unseen hand kept soldiers inside what would one day be a national park. Such boundaries are artificial, modern constructions shaped by external factors, and they have little bearing on what is or is not historic. To assume the park boundary at the Wilderness encompasses every acre of significant ground is to believe that the landscape beyond the borders of Yosemite National Park instantly ceases to be majestic.
With Civil War battlefields we have a true tool for determining historic value: the findings of the congressionally appointed Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. I was privileged to serve on this distinguished panel of historians and lawmakers, and I stand by our decision to include the area Wal-Mart is considering within the battlefield's historic boundary.
The controversy illustrates another misconception about historic preservation -- that it must occur at the expense of economic development. A properly managed historic site can be a powerful economic driver for its community, creating jobs and generating tax revenue by drawing tourists.
Recognizing this, preservationists have proposed a comprehensive planning process to balance protection of the Wilderness Battlefield with regional economic development goals, marrying respect for the old with the promise of the new. It is a process by which everyone -- Wal-Mart, local residents and the battlefield -- wins. The alternative is the type of piecemeal development that has swallowed up historic sites and destroyed the identities of countless communities. It is a scenario in which only Wal-Mart wins.
There is still time for Wal-Mart to recognize its error and identify another location. This week marks the 145th anniversary of the Battle of the Wilderness, a perfect opportunity to seek a solution in everyone's best interests. The Wilderness Battlefield is a living memorial to American sacrifice and heroism. It would be tragic if such a landmark was lost through the short-sightedness of local decision-makers and Wal-Mart's stubborn refusal to consider reasonable alternatives.
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
With these folks in charge, there is reason to be concerned for Orange County, Virginia's future.
Orange: No to Wilderness gateway study
Orange supervisors reject preservationists' request to join planning study of Wilderness battlefield area
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
April 16, 2009
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has once again rejected the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition's request to join a planning study for the State Route 3 area north of the Wilderness battlefield.
A majority of the five supervisors have said they considered it an attempt to delay or derail a Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for a commercially zoned site near the Civil War battlefield park.
In a letter to Jim Campi, policy and communications director of the Civil War Preservation Trust, Chairman Lee Frame reiterated that supervisors do not reject the goals of a comprehensive planning process for the area.
But the county will not hold up Wal-Mart's application for a special-use permit to build its 138,000-square-foot store while the study is done, Frame wrote.
The letter approved by supervisors Tuesday night is a response to an April 1 letter signed by some members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition and the King family. The family wants to build a 900-acre mixed-use development near the proposed Wal-Mart.
That letter attempted to address the county's concern for economic development in the area by announcing that the family "wishes to see their property developed in a responsible manner that benefits the community and the National Park."
The King family also owns more than 100 acres on the opposite side of Route 3 that is considered part of the Wilderness battlefield and has been approved by Congress for acquisition. Many of those involved anticipate that the land will be part of a deal that will put a new intersection on Route 3 and create a road that will intersect State Route 20 near Ellwood.
The coalition's Jan. 9 proposal says "decisions regarding these lands must be made after the Gateway Vision process has reached a stage where the project development has the benefit of, and can reflect, the results."
The coalition's original study timeline was January to June, at which time "Orange County, developers, and Wilderness Coalition set future phases and refine agreements."
"The Coalition is welcome to offer recommendations without the County committing to a cumbersome planning process at this time," Frame wrote.
The same message was sent by Frame in a Feb. 26 letter to the coalition rejecting the first study offer.
"They brought this up last year," said Supervisor Mark Johnson. "If they'd done [the planning study], then it would be done by now. We never told them not to do it."
Supervisor Zack Burkett agreed. "If they started their study when they originally proposed it, instead of lying to people all over the country about it, six months would be up by now," he said.
Some supervisors have expressed annoyance at the barrage of correspondence they received as a result of efforts by national and local preservation groups that oppose Wal-Mart. That annoyance peaked when the Vermont legislature chimed in with a proclamation opposing development near the Wilderness battlefield, which includes a monument to Vermont soldiers.
At Tuesday's meeting, Frame and Supervisor Teri Pace supported the planning study. But Supervisors Teel Goodwin, Burkett and Johnson opposed it, calling it a "delaying tactic" aimed at derailing the proposed Wal-Mart.
"It's really shortsighted of the board not to accept this offer," Pace said. "All they're asking is that we hold back for six months."
"If the coalition has any information relevant to the Wal-Mart location, they can present it at the public hearings that will be held before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors," Frame said.
EricLeave a comment:
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