Orange County Officials Proceed
The Orange County Planning Commission voted 5-4 to recommend that the Orange County Board of Supervisors approve Wal-mart’s application for a special use permit. Wal-mart wants to build a 138,000-square-foot “Supercenter” on 19.5 acres at the intersection of state Routes 3 and 20. The land is privately owned and has been commercially zoned since 1973, but county code specifies that constructing a retail building over 60,000 square feet requires a special permit. If supervisors approve it, Wal-mart can break ground. A lot of activity has taken place since the Civil War News’ June story, the most recent being endorsement of an alternative Orange County site by three of Virginia’s political leaders. The highest elected officials for each major party, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (Democrat) and House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (Republican), in a joint July 13 letter cited their success in preserving “nearly 2,000 acres on 24 tracts on 16 different battlefields.” While noting that the supervisors have the final word, they urged a new site and promised “the technical services of any and all state agencies that could be of help to the County and Wal-mart.” U.S. Senator Jim Webb also endorsed finding a new location “that respects the Wilderness Battlefield site.” The county’s Administrator, Bill Rolfe, expressed similar views in an e-mail that was leaked and he was subsequently fired. On July 27 the supervisors will hold a public hearing on the Wal-mart special permit. A large turnout is expected. The next day the board will hold its regular meeting. They are expected to discuss the Kaine-Howell letter in open session. (It was discussed July 14 in closed session.) They may or may not vote on the special permit. Three of the five supervisors have publicly indicated they support the proposed Wal-mart site. Chronology Since May May 21: The planning commission held a public hearing on the Wal-mart special permit. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reported about 200 people attended and that opponents of Wal-mart’s plans, 72 of whom spoke, outnumbered supporters about two-to-one. June 8: Virginia Department of Historic Resources Director Kathleen S. Kilpatrick responded in writing to a request from Orange County for technical assistance with the Wal-mart special permit application. She pointed out that the cultural resource investigation by Dovetail Cultural Resource Group (sponsored by Wal-mart) “was to identify significant historical resources within the project’s Area of Potential Effect.” After some elaboration, Kilpatrick stated that the Dovetail report and her department both agreed “that the project area, as part of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville Battlefields, is a significant historic resource….” Kilpatrick described some historic evidence and concluded, “The preponderance of evidence thus indicates that this parcel figured directly in military operations of the Confederate Army during the Battle of Chancellorsville and of the Union Army during the Battle of the Wilderness.” This is in stark contrast to Orange County Director of Community Development David B. Grover’s staff report to the planning commission dated May 6, 2009. Grover cited the same Dovetail cultural resource investigation report but claimed instead that it “found no significant historic or cultural resources on the subject property.” Regarding the issue of the visual impact of the proposed store on the battlefield, Grover said Wal-mart had Bowman Consulting perform a viewshed analysis of the site, and concluded “…it appears that visual impacts of the proposed development on the Wilderness Battlefield are adequately mitigated.” Kilpatrick dissented in her letter to the planning commission, and said “…the validation process [Grover] used did not constitute a professional assessment of Wal-Mart’s visual impact analysis.” June 11: The planning commission grilled Wal-mart lawyers and representatives. The Fredericksburg paper quoted the lead Wal-mart attorney saying “no evidence of military engagements was found on the site.” June 14: Three op-eds in the Free Lance-Star discussed Wal-mart’s 1996 effort to build a store next to George Washington’s boyhood home at Ferry Farm across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg. It was moved down the highway by a cooperative effort of local government, preservationists, the media and – yes - Wal-mart. The parallel to 2009 was obvious. June 15: Orange County Administrator Bill Rolfe, who served at the pleasure of the supervisors, sent an email urging them to find a new location for the Wal-mart in Orange County, away from the Wilderness Battlefield. The public did not learn of this email until it was leaked in a July 1 news story. June 25: The planning commissioners questioned Wal-mart lawyers and representatives again. Some hard feelings towards the National Park Service on the part of one of the commissioners came out during the meeting. Another asked, “Does an actor have more voice in Orange County than a citizen?” This apparently referred to screen star Robert Duvall’s remarks at a May 4 anti-Wal-mart rally held on the battlefield. In the end, the planning commission voted 5-4 to support the special permit. After the vote, all the commissioners, including those who opposed the permit, spent the rest of the meeting tweaking the conditions Wal-mart had to endorse first. The specifics took five pages to enumerate. July 3: The Board of Supervisors held a closed meeting to discuss Rolfe’s email. He was fired, effective immediately. Subsequently, some supervisors said they fired Rolfe for more than that email. The assistant county administrator, Julie Jordan, became acting county administrator. July 10: The Free Lance-Star reported that the owner of 2,100 acres next to the proposed Wal-mart site offered to sell some of that to Wal-mart at the same price it is paying for the current site. Wal-mart was quoted as rejecting it because the site is not zoned for commercial use. This was just the latest of several counter-offers made to Wal-mart by owners of land away from the Wilderness Battlefield.
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