Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Orange supervisors not swayed by study offer
Orange supervisors not impressed with coalition's offer to conduct land-use study
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
April 3, 2009
Most Orange County supervisors don't appear any more interested in the latest attempt by preservationists to engage them in a discussion of land use than they were the first time.
Members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition sent a letter this week to Board of Supervisors Chairman Lee Frame asking for the county to agree to a "comprehensive planning process for the Wilderness Battlefield/Orange County gateway region."
The letter reiterates an offer made earlier this year that supervisors rejected, but this time includes the signatures of landowners Charles "Chip" King, his wife, Nan, and sister Jan King Evans, and local businessman Ken Dotson, the Kings' local representative.
"There's nothing new in this letter, and it isn't going to change any votes on the Board of Supervisors," Frame said yesterday.
"It sort of puts us in the position of following the outcome of a study. A study might produce something we might like to look at, but that's not likely to happen."
The proposed gateway covers the State Routes 3 and 20 area of northeast Orange. The area is already home to commercial development, including a Sheetz gas station, a 7-Eleven, two strip malls, a Wachovia bank, a McDonald's and a used-car lot.
Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter as part of a 50-acre retail development in the area--a site preservationists oppose because of its proximity to the Civil War battlefield park.
King and his family have proposed a 900-acre mixed-used development called Wilderness Crossing on the north side of Route 3, adjacent to the Wal-Mart site. It is part of the 2,000 acres owned by the family. The county's comprehensive plan designates growth in that area, and county officials have long looked to the area for commercial development to balance the tax base.
According to figures provided to County Administrator Bill Rolfe by the commissioner of revenue, Orange has 1,862 acres classified as business and industry for tax-assessment purposes. That's less than 1 percent of the county--far below the goal of 30 percent.
Three of the county's five supervisors have already voiced their support for Wal-Mart, citing the need for the promised 300 jobs and $500,000 in annual tax revenue for the county.
Frame has said he will wait until he hears from the public before declaring his position, but his evaluation of the letter's impact was backed by Supervisors Zack Burkett, Teel Goodwin and Mark Johnson. All said they saw nothing new in the coalition's offer and would continue to support Wal-Mart and other commercial development in the area.
"We always told the coalition people that we would love to see their study, but we wouldn't let it delay Wal-Mart," Burkett said.
The study proposed in January was expected to take six months. It called for the county to hold off on development proposals until it was finished.
"This is just the latest attempt by people who want to stop development in the county. These people will do anything they can to get their positions across," Johnson said. "But it's not their job to balance the budget in Orange County."
Supervisor Teri Pace supports the coalition's plan.
"It would be wise for us to accept this offer from the Kings and the coalition, and to participate in this study, so that we act in the long-term best interests of Orange County moving forward," she said yesterday. "The more options you have, the more likely you're going to get the right answer."
A special-use permit is all that is required for the retail giant to start construction. Supervisors are expected to approve the permit this summer.
In past community presentations, Dotson has said he would like to see Wal-Mart in the Wilderness Crossing project. Now, however, he says that Wal-Mart could just as easily stay put, but it probably needs to be 20 feet lower that originally proposed.
"We all want sustainable economic development," Dotson said yesterday. "That's bigger than Wal-Mart. We need to come together. The county needs to preserve what it has, but also to balance its tax base."
Eric
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Major landowner joins Gateway push
Eastern Orange's largest landowner and preservation alliance agree to jointly plan Wilderness gateway, invite county and Wal-Mart to participate
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
April 3, 2009
The dynamics of the conversation about land use in eastern Orange County may be changing.
The area's largest private landowner, the King family, is joining with preservationists this week to ask the county and the retailer it has been wooing--Wal-Mart Stores Inc.--to sit down together and plan the future of the State Route 3 corridor.
The Kings, who own 2,173 acres between the Wilderness battlefield and the Rapidan River, have agreed to engage in an open-ended effort to try balancing their interests with historic preservation and Orange's desire for economic development in that area.
King family members and the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition are inviting the county's elected officials to collaborate in examining the possibilities for the "gateway" shared by Orange and the Civil War battlefield.
The Kings and the coalition, in a joint statement delivered late Wednesday to Board Chairman Lee Frame and County Administrator Bill Rolfe, said they "strongly encourage" Orange to take part in the land-use planning process they both endorse.
That renews and expands on an offer the coalition made in January to the county Board of Supervisors, which was rejected by three members. The majority called it a ruse to delay their decision on a retail center anchored by a 138,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed just north of the State Routes 3 and 20 crossroads.
Last year, the board rejected the Kings' request to rezone 177 acres to allow commercial development at the southwest corner of Routes 3 and 20.
Board Chairman Lee Frame, in an interview yesterday, expressed skepticism about the King-coalition statement. "I'm not sure this letter offers much more than what was offered before, that it's anything new or different," he said.
preservationists praise kings' commitment
The gateway planning effort "is very open-ended, with no preconceived notions," said Jim Campi, spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust. "We'll see what alternatives result at the end. We're talking about a process that goes far beyond 100-foot buffers, that involves all aspects of the planning process.
"Now is the time to start moving forward with this. The preservation community is committed to it, and the King family is committed to it."
Rob Nieweg, director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Southern Field Office, said "the Kings are making it very clear that this is not a delaying tactic; this is responsible governance."
"Preservationists and the largest property owner in this region are asking Orange County to live up to its obligations, under state law, to plan for future growth and ensure heritage preservation," Nieweg said. "Those twin goals are in the county's comprehensive plan."
Russ Smith, superintendent of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, praised the Kings for their willingness to work together on land-use issues.
"It's a difficult task, but well worth the effort," Smith said. "We hope that the owners of the Wal-Mart property will join in."
Campi of the Civil War Preservation Trust said the coalition hopes to discuss the joint statement soon with the world's largest retailer. "We've had some conversations with Wal-Mart, and the lines of communication remain open," he said.
WAL-MART WEIGHS IN
Keith Morris, director of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart's northeast region, said the retail giant shares the same goals as the coalition.
"Through our own careful planning, creative design, and meetings with the community, our development is absolutely compatible with preservation of the battlefield and national park," Morris said. "We are glad to see the coalition recognize that carefully planned development and preservation of the battlefield park are not mutually exclusive."
If some of the Kings' 3.4 square miles may be considered compatible for development, Morris said, "it would be hard to argue that our commercially zoned and comprehensively planned site of 50 acres, where almost one-third will remain undeveloped and preserved, is somehow not compatible."
One group in the eight-member coalition, the Piedmont Environmental Council, declined to sign the joint statement.
"It seemed to go a little too far," PEC State Policy Director Daniel Holmes said, referring to the assertion that historic-site preservation may be in accord with what it calls "large-scale commercial development."
"However, the PEC supports this gateway planning process," Holmes said. "We feel it's in the best interests of the county to take a look at that before making any major development decisions [along Route 3]. In that way, we do not differ at all with the rest of the members of the coalition."
Catharine Gilliam, Virginia program manager with the National Parks Conservation Association, said this week's statement grew out of informal conversations the King family had been having for months with coalition representatives.
"The Kings and the coalition recognized we had a lot more common ground than had been acknowledged before, and that this planning and visioning effort will identify where there could be consensus," she said.
Kenny Dotson, the King family's local representative, agreed. "We realized that if we didn't listen to the coalition we'd be fighting them," he said.
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The Battle of the Wilderness, one of the Civil War's largest and most important conflicts, was the first clash between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.
The May 5-6, 1864, battle began Grant's grueling Overland Campaign, which drained both armies and brought Union troops to the gates of Richmond.
More than 160,000 men fought along what are now State Routes 3 and 20. Nearly 29,000 Americans were killed, wounded or captured.
Today, much of the battlefield is part of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. The proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter is within the historical battle area, but outside the park boundary authorized by Congress.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Wilderness makes 'endangered' list 10 MOST ENDANGERED
Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss brings star power to historic preservation; Wilderness battlefield controversy draws national attention
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
March 19, 2009
--It shared billing with 24 other battlefields, but the Wilderness got plenty of play yesterday as preservationists spotlighted America's most endangered Civil War sites.
The battlefield in Orange and Spotsylvania counties was mentioned several times as the Civil War Preservation Trust briefed the media on its 2009 "History Under Siege" report at a National Press Club news conference headlined by Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss.
It was the first historic site that CWPT President James Lighthizer named as he released the trust's yearly top-10 list of the nation's most threatened battlefields. The trust also announced 15 "at-risk" battlefields.
Wilderness exemplifies how some national battlefield parks face grave challenges from outside their boundaries, Lighthizer said. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. proposes to build a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter on commercially zoned land within a quarter-mile of the Wilderness battle sites preserved by Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
The trust and its allies say the Wal-Mart, anchoring other retail projects, will encourage sprawl at the gateway to the park and pour heavy traffic onto State Route 20, the heart of the battlefield.
"[The Wilderness] was a horrific battle, with tremendous slaughter, and yet the Wal-Mart corporation proposes building a monstrosity of a big box on the battlefield, though it's not on National Park Service land," Lighthizer told the standing-room-only crowd. "At the very least, it's going to denigrate that battlefield. And at the very worst, it's going to destroy part of it. Something proposed even on the outside of land already preserved can be a serious threat."
Maryland's Monocacy national battlefield, threatened by a proposed waste incinerator and its 200-foot-tall smokestack, falls in the same category, Lighthizer said.
But Dreyfuss stole the show, as the trust's chief readily admitted.
"This is like a parallel universe for me because I love history as much as I love acting," Dreyfuss said. "Had I not been an actor, I would have been a history teacher, and that's that."
Best known for films such as "American Graffiti," "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," he waxed eloquent about the need for Americans to better understand their heritage--to know where they come from, and why. "I don't think there's an aspect of the war, militarily, strategically or otherwise, that doesn't fascinate me," Dreyfuss said. "I've re-created the Battle of Cedar Creek, marching in the First Virginia Infantry. And I'm a Unionist, so that was tough."
Having been involved in numerous documentaries, including "Lincoln" and the Smithsonian Institution's series "The Great Battles of the Civil War," he pitched an idea for a new one.
Dreyfuss said he'd like to make a TV documentary on the Civil War that depicts many battlefields just as they are today, consumed--or nibbled away at--by suburban sprawl and homogenous chain-store development.
"Visually, it would go from Foster's Freeze to Foster's Freeze, to Wal-Mart to Barnes & Noble, and show this is where Nathan Bedford Forrest did this and where Lee did that and where Grant did this. You'll hear it. You won't see it, because we eat our history.
"I think that would go a long way toward reminding us of how valuable it is that we do not eat--should not, ever--eat our history."
Libby O'Connell, chief historian at History, formerly The History Channel, stressed the economic benefits that heritage tourism brings to communities that save and care for historic sites. "I want to go on record here as saying the trust is not saying 'No development, everything has to stay the same.' We know that's not going to work," said O'Connell, who serves on CWPT's Board of Directors.
"What we're talking about here is smart development intelligent planning with community stakeholders, so that people can understand the long-term goal of serious preservationists is to make it work for all of us."
Culpeper County resident Zann Miner, president of the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, said the local group appreciates the trust's continued focus on the problems that large-scale commercial development pose for the historic site.
The Battle of the Wilderness, one of the Civil War's largest and most important conflicts, was the first clash between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The May 5-6, 1864, battle began Grant's grueling Overland Campaign, which drained both armies and eventually brought Union troops to the gates of Richmond.
Two other Virginia battlefields--New Market Heights and Cedar Creek--also made the trust's top-10 list.
At New Market Heights in Henrico County south of Richmond, new subdivisions and growing traffic congestion confront the battlefield. Despite being of national significance, no portion of the land is protected by any preservation organization.
A gutsy Union assault there by African-American troops on Sept. 29, 1864, resulted in 14 black soldiers being awarded the congressional Medal of Honor--the highest military decoration awarded by the U.S. government.
At Cedar Creek, between Middletown and Strasburg in the Shenandoah Valley, expansion of neighboring limestone quarries threatens the Oct. 19, 1864, battlefield.
After yesterday's news conference, Dreyfuss, Lighthizer and O'Connell traveled to Washington's Shaw neighborhood--named after Robert Gould Shaw, the martyred Union officer portrayed in the movie "Glory."
Visiting the African American Civil War Memorial at 10th and U streets, they joined black Civil War re-enactors to honor the courage and sacrifice of the 200,000 black troops who fought for the Union.
Frank Smith, director of the nearby African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, gave Dreyfuss a tour of the monument. Then, as dozens of students from D.C. schools looked on, the dignitaries laid a wreath at its
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The Civil War Preservation Trust, which issued its first annual report on endangered battlefields in February 2001, named the following 10 sites yesterday as the nation's most threatened:
Cedar Creek, Va.
Fort Gaines, Ala.
Gettysburg, Pa.
Monocacy, Md.
New Market Heights, Va.
Port Gibson, Miss.
Sabine Pass, Texas
South Mountain, Md.
Spring Hill, Tenn.
Wilderness, Va.
The report also includes 15 other Civil War sites--including Hampton's Fort Monroe--as "at-risk."
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Environmentalist alleges manipulation of zoning
Environmental group official accuses Orange of fixing zoning to help Wal-Mart
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
March 11, 2009
A Piedmont Environmental Council official has accused a consultant of removing parts of Orange County's zoning ordinance because county officials want to allow Wal-Mart to build in the Wilderness battlefield area.
Jack Snyder, a PEC vice chairman, also accused the county administration of "manipulating" the work of zoning and planning consultant Milt Herd.
Herd, who heads Herd Planning & Design, is working with Karen and Vlad Gavrilovic of Renaissance Planning Group to bring the county's zoning ordinance into compliance with state law and modern land-use standards. "I've had no interaction or guidance from Orange County," Herd said.
Yesterday, County Administrator Bill Rolfe and Director of Strategic Planning Deborah Kendall echoed Herd. "This has nothing to do with Wal-Mart," Kendall said in an interview. "Attention was drawn to it because of Wal-Mart, but it's being done because we want to make sure the revised ordinance is legal."
The PEC and other opponents of Wal-Mart's presence have claimed that the commercially zoned land that the retailer wants to build on should have reverted to agriculturally zoned land because no site plan was submitted on it within five years of its rezoning.
According to state law, however, the county does not have the authority to legislate zoning reversion.
Snyder is a member of the 25-member steering committee appointed by Orange County supervisors to work with the consultants. He has opposed the Wal-Mart proposal and worked to craft a comprehensive plan and subdivision ordinance that restricts growth.
His comments at Monday night's meeting of the steering committee were not supported by other members.
Orange attorney and former Supervisor Rick Wilkinson commended Herd for "doing what we asked you to do."
Farmer and businessman Ron Burleson praised Herd's work on his 130-page draft.
"We have something to work from now. Someone had to take the whole thing and make sense of it. This draft is our chance to go through it thoughtfully," he said.
By the end of the meeting, though, retired attorney and county historian Frank Walker laughingly called the committee's progress "terminal confusion."
The zoning ordinance steering committee will meet again with the consultants April 13. By that time, Herd said, he would have suggestions for conservation districts that might include passive agricultural uses but would be geared toward areas the county would like to preserve for historical and environmental uses.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
The problem with this theory Johnny is we, myself included, as a Preservation group need to give people reasons other then it is our Heritage to not develope the land or sell it to developers and we don't(again myself included). We don't buy it up least not as much as we like, we don't immune those folks from the property tax they pay if they agree to leave the land as is. So people see land that isn't making them money and is costing therm at the same time. In addition we don't give zoning boards and city planners a way to suppliment the tax revenues they are not getting from the area. It is like my dad and a former Chief of mine both said "don't give me a complaint, give me a solution". Now I donate to CWPT when and what I can and I wrtie my reps to increase NPS funds to make money available to buy up land when it comes for sale. But if we as preservationists would try to find a dollar sign way to show people it is better not to develope we would get more done.Originally posted by Johnny Lloyd View PostLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Congressmen oppose Wal-Mart in Orange
Vermont congressman joins Texas colleague in Wal-Mart fight; Civil War scholar calls Vermont Legislature's action 'unprecedented'
By CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
February 27, 2009
It's officially bipartisan now.
Two congressmen on opposite ends of the political spectrum--a liberal Democrat from Vermont and a conservative Republican from Texas--are speaking out against plans for a Wal-Mart store at Virginia's Wilderness battlefield.
U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., just joined Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, in writing Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke to oppose the company's plan for a 139,000-square-foot Supercenter at what was a key Civil War crossroads.
"While we may represent different political parties and states on opposing sides of the Civil War, we stand united in our support of respecting hallowed ground such as The Wilderness battlefield," Welch and Poe wrote the retail giant's president.
Wal-Mart and its backers say the big-box store would be built behind a small existing strip mall, set back from State Route 3.
The 1st Vermont Brigade fought bravely in the Battle of the Wilderness, losing 1,232 men in one day. That fact and Wal-Mart's plan prompted the Vermont Legislature earlier this month to urge relocation of the store, which would anchor a 55-acre retail center.
"The 1st Vermont Brigade's brave stand at the Battle of the Wilderness exemplifies the spirit and sacrifice of Vermont troops in all conflicts our country has faced," Welch and Poe wrote to Duke. "This hallowed ground must be protected and preserved so that future generations of Vermonters can appreciate our state's crucial role in saving the Union."
The Vermont lawmakers' bipartisan action is unprecedented, said Princeton University professor emeritus James M. McPherson, considered the dean of Civil War historians.
"I've never heard of a state legislature taking a position like that," said McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Battle Cry Freedom."
"I'm delighted that they did, and I can understand the reason for it."
The 1st Vermont Brigade suffered huge casualties in the Battle of the Wilderness, preventing the Confederates from splitting Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army in two.
For the Vermonters, it was bloodiest day of the Civil War.
"I'm sure that the consciousness of that event in a small state like Vermont still resonates," McPherson said.
"And to have a Wal-Mart overlooking the territory where all that took place is something that really can arouse a lot of passion in a state like Vermont, which is very proud of its Civil War record."
Read the letter here:
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Wal-Mart survey shows support
Orange residents react to Wal-Mart proposal
By ROBIN KNEPPER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
February 19, 2009
A survey of Orange County residents commissioned by Wal-Mart found that 61 percent of the 300 registered voters who responded support a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter a quarter-mile off State Route 3 near State Route 20, company officials said.
The survey also found that 74 percent of those who responded do not think there are enough shopping options in Orange County.
"The survey results confirm that a significant majority of residents in Orange County support the project in its currently proposed location," said Keith Morris, a Wal-Mart spokesman, in a statement released yesterday.
Preservationists say the proposed store is too close to the Wilderness battlefield. Wal-Mart supporters note that Sheetz, McDonald's, a strip mall and a used-car lot on the south side of Route 3 are much closer to the battlefield.
Another strip mall, a bank and a 7-Eleven on the north side of Route 3 are a quarter-mile closer to the battlefield than the proposed Wal-Mart.
The survey found that 36 percent of respondents felt that the Wal-Mart would have an adverse impact on the Wilderness battlefield, but it also showed that 70 percent of respondents believe the store would not be visible from the battlefield. Nineteen percent believe it would be visible.
Tests to determine whether the store would be visible have not yet been performed.
"I'm a little skeptical of surveys," said Lee Frame, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the only supervisor undecided about Wal-Mart. "But the numbers aren't inconsistent with what I've heard in conversations with my constituents."
Frame represents the 8,000 residents of Lake of the Woods and a small area nearby.
"I still have some concerns about the project," Frame said. "There's a lot of argument on both sides of the question, like the revenue to the county and the lack of nearby shopping."
Wal-Mart has submitted an application for a special-use permit to build the 143,000-square-foot supercenter on land that has been zoned for commercial use since 1973. The county's comprehensive plan calls for mixed-use development in the surrounding 2,000 acres in that northeastern corner of the county.
The Wal-Mart project is expected to generate $500,000 a year in tax revenue and create about 300 jobs.
Supervisors Teel Goodwin, Zack Burkett and Mark Johnson have thrown their support behind Wal-Mart. Supervisor Teri Pace, who represents District 4, where the store would be located, has said she opposes the project in its proposed location.
The survey was conducted in January by Voter Consumer Research for Wal-Mart. The margin of error was not reported.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Vermont: Move Wal-Mart
Vermont legislature asks Virginians, Wal-Mart to back off big-box development at Wilderness gateway to national military park
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
February 14, 2009
Vermonters to the front!
The Green Mountain State's legislature weighed in forcefully yesterday in the Wilderness Wal-Mart controversy in central Virginia.
Despite furious last-minute lobbying by Wal-Mart, the Vermont House added its voice to that of the Senate, adopting a joint resolution expressing the state's opposition to big-box development in the Wilderness battlefield area.
The world's largest retailer proposes to build a 139,000-square-foot Supercenter less than a quarter-mile from an entrance to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The owner of an adjacent tract proposes a mixed-use development on 900 acres that wrap around the 51-acre tract where the Wal-Mart retail center would be sited.
Without naming Wal-Mart, the Vermont General Assembly asked the developers to find alternative plots for their stores farther from the Civil War battlefield.
In bipartisan fashion, the legislature also asked the Orange County Board of Supervisors, now considering a special-use permit for the Wal-Mart store, to preserve the area.
A majority of the Orange supervisors have indicated that they support the Wal-Mart proposal.
The Vermont assembly also asked Gov. Tim Kaine and the Old Dominion's House and Senate to strongly support protecting the "historic ground of the Wilderness that is so important to the history of our state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the entire nation."
Asked for comment, Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris said the Wilderness Supercenter's "impact would not be negative to the battlefield if the project goes forward." He said Wal-Mart will respond to Vermont's legislators.
"We still understand the historical significance of the Wilderness site, and we have done everything in our power to ensure that our development is respectful of the location and the guidelines [Orange County] has already put forth," Morris said.
The Vermont House and Senate held hearings, receiving testimony from historians, park Superintendent Russ Smith and representatives of Wal-Mart and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The pivotal House debate, and the resolution's second reading, came Thursday as Vermont and the nation marked the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth.
At 2:21 p.m., less than two hours before legislators began speaking on the measure, church bells across the state rang for 10 minutes to honor the 16th president. Some of the same bells had tolled to celebrate the Civil War's end in 1865 and to mourn Lincoln's death at the hands of an assassin not long after.
Vermont troops suffered their heaviest casualties of the war in the Battle of the Wilderness, turning back a Confederate attack that nearly split the Union army. The May 1864 battle, where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant first clashed, marked the beginning of the end for Lee's army.
Rep. Rick Hube, a Republican leader, was first to speak during Thursday's debate in the Vermont House. He represents the hometown of Lewis Grant, commander of the 1st Vermont Brigade, which--at great cost--repulsed a critical Confederate attack at Brock Road and Orange Plank Road in Spotsylvania County.
Earlier this decade, then-U.S. Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont secured federal funding to buy 550 acres there and add it to the national park. In 2006, Vermont donated a 20-ton granite monument to its troops that was placed at the historic intersection.
This week's action by the state legislature, though, wasn't about North versus South, said Vincent Illuzzi, chairman of the Vermont Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, which first heard testimony on the measure.
"Were Vermonters jeopardizing hallowed ground dear to the hearts of Virginians, I would fully expect Virginians to urge Vermonters to go slowly and consider alternatives before authorizing development of an important historic area," Illuzzi said.
"Like Humpty Dumpty, once the land is carved up and developed, it will never be put together again."
Howard Coffin, a Civil War historian and author who lives in Montpelier, the state capital, said that to Vermonters, the Wilderness is the most important of all Civil War battlefields, eclipsing even Gettysburg.
"The battlefield cannot be moved," Coffin said. "A Wal-Mart can be moved. Just put it somewhere else."
The Civil War Preservation Trust, one of the nine members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, lauded Vermont's action.
"The resolution by the Vermont legislature underscores the national scope of the Wilderness Wal-Mart debate," Jim Campi, the trust's policy director, said yesterday. "All of us--Wal-Mart, Orange County and the preservation community--have a responsibility to protect these beloved yet vulnerable national treasures."
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
IS WAL-MART ZONING VALID?
National Trust for Historic Preservation says commercial zoning for Wilderness Wal-Mart has expired. Orange County officials say not so
BY CLINT SCHEMMER AND ROBIN KNEPPER
February 7, 2009
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
From the start of a controversy over development in the Wilderness battlefield area, Wal-Mart spokesmen have noted that the retailer's proposed store site there has been zoned commercial for 20-plus years.
Or has it?
That's the question being asked by some people in Orange County.
The national coalition fighting Wal-Mart's proposed Supercenter near the entrance to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is wondering the same thing: Does Wal-Mart need more than just a special-use permit for its 133,000-square-foot store?
John and Carla Bangs, residents of Monrovia in western Orange, broached the issue Jan. 29 in an op-ed column in the Orange County Review.
The Bangses, who oppose Wal-Mart's retail center and other large-scale development proposed near the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20, suggested that provisions in Orange's zoning ordinance render the commercial zoning for the Wal-Mart tract "null and void."
Two sections of the ordinance address stale zoning. The most recent provision--added in 2001--requires landowners to act on commercial, industrial and multifamily rezonings within five years of their approval, by submitting site plans for county review and "diligently" pursuing construction. If they don't, the land reverts to its previous zoning.
Wal-Mart filed its plan more than 25 years after Orange rezoned the 51-acre site, now owned by JDC Ventures of Vienna, for commercial use.
The Bangses' piece prompted the National Trust for Historic Preservation to write Orange County Administrator Bill Rolfe on Monday to request a meeting about the matter.
"There are going to be several schools of thought on this," said Robert Nieweg, regional attorney in the trust's Southern Field Office. "The reason we wrote the county was to offer our analysis and to ask for theirs."
The 266,000-member trust, which includes 18,000 Virginians, believes the JDC property has reverted to agricultural zoning because of the clause in Orange's ordinance, Nieweg said.
Wal-Mart has asked the Orange Board of Supervisors to grant a special-use permit for its project, which falls under the county's ordinance regulating "big-box" stores. But after examining the local laws, trust officials believe Wal-Mart needs to start from scratch and request a commercial rezoning, Nieweg said.
In a reply yesterday to National Trust general counsel Paul Edmondson, Rolfe wrote that the site-plan time limit wasn't part of Orange's zoning code when it rezoned the land in 1973 and "therefore would not apply."
"The zoning is clearly valid," Supervisor Mark Johnson said in an interview earlier. "Wal-Mart will look really good sitting up on that hill."
In his letter to Edmondson, Rolfe said county officials were willing to discuss the issue further with coalition leaders. Nieweg said the trust will take Rolfe up on the offer.
"We are disappointed but not dissuaded by Orange County's analysis," Nieweg said yesterday. "The zoning status of the proposed Wal-Mart site is an important and complex legal question which the National Trust and its partners will continue to review."
Supervisor Teri Pace, in whose district the Wal-Mart would be built, said the county should thoroughly examine the zoning-reversion issue--and the larger one of stale or "spot" zoning throughout the county.
Jim Campi, spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust, said the zoning issue "only emphasizes the need for a comprehensive planning process" for land at the Wilderness crossroads.
The National Park Service and the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition's nine nonprofit groups are offering to finance a $40,000 effort to help Orange find ways to create jobs while preserving the scenic landscapes that make the Civil War battlefield the county's No. 1 tourist attraction. The fast-track study would be a collaborative undertaking by all parties in the Wilderness Wal-Mart issue.
Three members of the five-member Board of Supervisors have said they are not interested in the offer. Some supervisors called it a delaying tactic.
EricLeave a comment:
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Re: The Wilderness Alert !!!!
Texas, Vermont politicians join Orange Wal-Mart battle
Politicians from Texas, Vermont join fight against proposed Orange Wal-Mart
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
January 31, 2009
The Free Lance-Star [Fredericksburg, Va.]
The so-called "Wilderness Wal-Mart" in Orange County is catching grief from both North and South--and elected officials on both ends of the political spectrum.
U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a conservative Republican from eastern Texas, has expressed to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott his "profound disappointment" about the giant retailer's plan to build a Supercenter beside the Civil War battlefield. In a letter written last week, he urges Scott to give the matter "immediate reconsideration."
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Vermont--a haven for independent-minded Democrats--are holding hearings on the issue. Vermont troops suffered their worst casualties of the war in the Battle of the Wilderness, turning back a Confederate attack that threatened to split the Union Army.
The Vermont Senate and House are considering whether to ask Wal-Mart to move the store farther from the entrance to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, according to Howard Coffin, a Civil War historian and author who lives in Montpelier, the state capital.
Wal-Mart is proposing to build a 139,000-square-foot store atop a ridge less than a quarter mile from the park, on commercially zoned land.
Nationally significant Civil War sites, "such as the tract of land for your proposed development, are not where commercial development needs to be in America," Poe wrote Scott. "They should be set aside and untouched for present and future generations of Americans to visit so as to never let them forget the past and the lessons they taught."
Poe noted that the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission, established by Congress to study the historical significance of such places, "defined your proposed land for development as part of The Wilderness [battlefield]. There are countless other locations your company could look at for your development in this region."
Poe's legislative director, Alan Knapp, said in an interview yesterday that Poe hopes Wal-Mart will relocate away from the battlefield and the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20.
"The right thing to do is for Wal-Mart to exercise its higher corporate responsibility, even if the land is zoned accordingly and the final decision is up to the Orange County supervisors," Knapp said. "We're asking for them to step back and reconsider."
Scott has not yet responded to Poe's letter, he said.
Knapp said the Wilderness has a special place in the hearts of Texans, whose modern-day service members revere the courage of the state's troops fighting at the Wilderness on May 5-6, 1864, and throughout the Civil War. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee praised the Texans' actions in the Virginia battle.
Russ Smith, superintendent of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park, welcomed Poe's intervention and the ongoing discussions among Vermont legislators.
"They are expressions from entirely different places showing people's interest across the country in these national treasures we have here," Smith said.
"I know that Orange County has some difficult decisions to make. And in making those decisions, they need to have this information."
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Ted Poe is a three-term congressman from the Lone Star State's 2nd District. The Houston-area seat was once held by Democrat Charlie Wilson, whose crusade to arm Afghan guerillas against a Soviet invasion was made into a popular 2007 movie, "Charlie Wilson's War."
A former prosecutor and judge, Poe gained national prominence for his tough-on-crime attitude and unorthodox sentencing. Keenly interested in American history, he supported the just-enacted Civil War Battlefield Preservation Act of 2007 and legislation to honor the Marquis de Lafayette's 250th birthday.
Supporters are trying to persuade Poe to run for governor of Texas next year.
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