Chancellorsville coalition needs help

[dusty27]

Received this today from Jim Campi of CWPT. These are talking points to be used in letters written in support of the removal of the Mullins farm from the county's Primary Settlement District. Please write if you have time.......

To: Chancellorsville Coalition Members

During the past few days, opponents of efforts to preserve the Mullins Farm have been speaking out against the Spotsylvania County public hearing on August 10. They claim that the County Board of Supervisors is attempting to infringe upon the property rights of Mr. Mullins. One letter-to-the-editor claims that county officials are "flip flopping" on the issue.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The August 10 hearing is an attempt by the Spotsylvania board to correct a mistake that should never have been made -- the placement of the Mullins Farm in the county's Primary Settlement District. This is a bold move -- one that Coalition members need to support.

Attached below are some talking points that help explain why removing the Mullins Farm from the Primary Settlement District is important. We need all Coalition members to attend the hearing on August 10. We also need Coalition members to write letters-to-the-editor to the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star in support of the hearing.

To submit a letter-to-the-editor, please visit the "get involved" section of the Coalition website at:
http://www.civilwar.org/preservation...newspapers.htm

If you have any questions, or have some additions to the list of talking points, please let me know.

Thanks again for your support!

Best,

Jim Campi

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Talking Points – Primary Settlement District

· On August 10, officials will vote to amend the county’s comprehensive plan to remove the 790-acre Mullins Farm property from the Primary Settlement District.

· The Primary Settlement District is a county designation which indicates where SpotsylvaniaCounty officials want to target new residential and commercial growth

· If the Mullins Farm is successfully removed from the Primary Settlement District, it will eliminate one of the remaining hurdles to protection of this hallowed battleground, the site of intense fighting on May 1, 1863.

· The Mullins Farm should never have been included in the Primary Settlement District – the entire property is located within the Chancellorsville Battlefield historic district. In addition, much of the property was recognized by a Congressional commission as “core battlefield land.” Those facts alone should have prevented the farm from being designated as a Primary Settlement District.

· According to Caroline Hayden of the Spotsylvania Preservation Foundation, Inc., “[t]he farm should not have been rezoned and placed in the Primary Settlement District because it brought further developmental pressure toward the battlefields.”

· According to County Supervisor Hap Connors, putting intense residential and commercial development on the Mullins Farm was a vision rejected by county voters in last year’s election. “This new Board is following that mandate and setting things right.”

· County officials are attempting to “right a wrong” – and we need to support this effort.

· The Mullins Farm was “shoehorned” into the Primary Settlement District. Any objective observer can see that the Mullins Farm sticks out from current boundary of the Primary Settlement District like a sore thumb.

· As a result, the bipartisan group Spotsylvania Voters to Stop Sprawl made the Mullins Farm’s inclusion in the Primary Settlement District a campaign issue last fall.

· This is not a property rights issue – this vote will have absolutely no impact on the property owner’s ability to build homes by-right. According to County Supervisor Bob Hagan, “Mr. Mullins will still have the right to proceed with the by-right development with the developer of his choice.”

· Also, removing the Primary Settlement District designation of the Mullins Farm doesn’t prevent water and sewer access to the property. It just means that the land owner will need to seek approval from the county Board of Supervisors – keeping control where it belongs, with the county’s duly-elected public officials.

· Taking the Mullins Farm out of the Primary Settlement District makes sense. The only legitimate reason for the designation – the right-of-way for the Outer Connector beltway around Fredericksburg – has been eliminated. Both the County Board and the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (FAMPO) have rejected the beltway proposal.