Final Hearing Date Set in Wilderness Standoff

This is it, so don’t get scared now.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors is set to make a decision once and for all on the fate of the Wilderness Wal-Mart - a public hearing has been scheduled for July 27th, which will be the last time the public (and Robert Duvall) will be able to make their opinions known before the board takes the matter for good. Note: As a Civil War vet, Robert Duvall can actually comment all he’d like.

What will they decide? Will Wal-Mart be allowed to desecrate a piece of American history? Will they be denied, and an alternate site be recommended?

There seems to be a divide between the County Planning Commission and Orange County residents - the Commission voted 5-4 last week to approve development on the Battlefield site, yet at previous public hearings, the majority of Orange County residents were against the project (by an estimated 2-1 margin). This public outcry, combined with the history of the land at stake, would make it seem appropriate that Wal-Mart would be eager for a compromise that would still allow them to develop in the area, if one were presented...but to this point, no dice. Which is why County Administrator Bill Rolfe believes it’s now up to the supervisors to make the “win-win” a reality.

“The question that begs to be asked is, ‘Why isn’t the county trying to broker a deal that keeps Wal-Mart in the county and moves it further away from the congressionally approved boundary line of the Wilderness Battlefield?’ Both would be in our best interest,” Rolfe wrote the Board of Supervisors in a June 15 e-mail...He noted two goals--that Orange enlarge and diversify its tax base, and not do anything that would “detract from the [Wilderness] battlefield as a tourism destination for our community.”

Rolfe went on to point out that the coalition of historic preservation groups currently fighting the Wilderness plan would appear to be amenable to a development located farther from the battlefield park. And it just so happens that just such a piece of land could be made available next to a nearby 51-acre retail development. The question is, will County Supervisors go for it, or will they doom the Wilderness Battlefield to witnessing another brutal defeat?

Seeking win-win in store debate [Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star]

Seeking win-win in store debate
July 1, 2009
By Clint Schemmer

As the debate over a proposed Wilderness area Wal-Mart moves to the Orange supervisors, County Administrator Bill Rolfe has quietly thrown his ideas into the mix.

Rolfe suggests that supervisors could end the 10-month-old national controversy by shifting the proposed retail center away from the Wilderness battlefield and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

“The question that begs to be asked is, ‘Why isn’t the county trying to broker a deal that keeps Wal-Mart in the county and moves it further away from the congressionally approved boundary line of the Wilderness Battlefield?’ Both would be in our best interest,” Rolfe wrote the Board of Supervisors in a June 15 e-mail.

He noted three op-ed pieces, published in the June 14 Free Lance-Star’s Viewpoints section, recounting how preservationists and Wal-Mart clashed in 1996 when the retailer planned to build a store at George Washington’s boyhood home in Stafford County. The retailer eventually built on another site about a mile east on State Route 3.

“This is not the first time this area has had to deal with Wal-Mart and a proposed location in close proximity to a historical site,” Rolfe wrote. “ The conclusion in the Ferry Farm case is that you can create a ‘win-win’ situation and the Board of Supervisors can play a major role in making that happen.”

He noted two goals--that Orange enlarge and diversify its tax base, and not do anything that would “detract from the [Wilderness] battlefield as a tourism destination for our community.”

The crucial issue is the Wal-Mart Supercenter’s location, Rolfe wrote, referring to public testimony before the county Planning Commission last month.

By at least a 2-1 margin, most people who testified at the hearing opposed allowing Wal-Mart’s 138,000-square-foot store at the site proposed by JDC Ventures of Vienna along Wilderness Run at the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. A majority of those who spoke were Orange residents.

Last Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5-4 to recommend JDC Ventures’ proposal to the supervisors, with certain conditions. The board will make the final decision on the developer’s request for a special-use permit.

Rolfe wrote that it appears that a coalition of historic preservation groups would support building a Wal-Mart at a location farther from the battlefield park. He noted that the King family, which owns 2,000 acres adjoining the 51.6-acre retail-center tract, is “willing to work with the county and Wal-Mart.”

The Kings propose a mixed-used development for their Orange property, about 900 acres, that “seems to work within the framework of the county’s comprehensive plan,” he wrote. “That plan provided for more commercial/business/industrial base without increasing the availability of housing in Orange County.

“Shouldn’t we at least try to make this a ‘win-win’ for our community?”

The King property would have to be rezoned for commercial development. The JDC Ventures tract is already zoned commercial and the developer needs only to secure a special-use permit under the county’s “big box” ordinance. Wal-Mart has said it wants a site already zoned commercial.

“I thought, ‘Why the hell don’t we move the Wal-Mart to the King property?’” Rolfe said in an interview Friday. “If the citizens are happy with that, and the preservationists are happy with that, why wouldn’t we try for such a solution?”

The Board of Supervisors did not discuss the administrator’s e-mail publicly at last night’s meeting.

Rolfe said supervisors’ reaction to his proposal has been mixed, with the five-member board’s Wal-Mart supporters warning him against going too far.

“From board members, I’ve not gotten any formal responses that said yes, or ‘How would you expect to proceed on this?’ Nobody’s grabbed the idea, and said let’s discuss it,” he said.

In making his proposal, Rolfe said he was speaking only for himself.

“Part of this position is throwing out ideas to see if you get any bites,” the county administrator said. “I like to go fishing once in a while.”

Posted by Corey Himrod on Wednesday, July 01, 2009

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