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**Mudslinger** · 07-15-2009, 08:50 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

How about that. Now the Governor is in the fight. Hopefully the county, as well as Wal-Mart will finally get the hint, and 55 acres will remain saved.

**dusty27** · 07-16-2009, 07:57 AM

Washington Post coverage

Kaine, Howell Oppose Wal-Mart Close to Wilderness Battlefield

By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 16, 2009

Threatened with the possibility that an army of cashiers with barcode-reading guns could invade hallowed ground near the site of one of the Civil War's most hellish battles, Virginia's two most powerful political foes have united in a bipartisan stand to relocate a proposed Wal-Mart in Orange County.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R) -- who have been on warring sides of many state issues -- have written to the Board of Supervisors, asking it to help Wal-Mart find a site farther from the Wilderness battlefield.
"We strongly encourage your Board to work closely with Wal-Mart to find an appropriate alternative site for the proposed retail center in the vicinity of the proposed site yet situated outside the boundaries of Wilderness Battlefield and out of the view of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park," says Monday's letter co-signed by Kaine and Howell. In their letter, Kaine and Howell also offered state resources in helping to work out an alternative.
Kaine has made his preservation of 400,000 acres of open land a centerpiece of his tenure; Howell is a Civil War buff who has also been co-chairman of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission.
The Wilderness marked the first clash between Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and culminated in a savage exchange of fire in a jungle-like inferno of scrub oak and pines. The May 1864 battle killed or wounded 24,000 soldiers. The National Park Service owns 2,800 acres of the core battlefield, whose larger area extends across almost 7,000 acres.
Wal-Mart has proposed a 138,000-square-foot store and parking lot on a site that is considered a gateway to the battlefield. Located on a hilltop overlooking the battlefield, the site had been zoned for commercial development for some time but still has little more than a small shopping plaza opposite a Sheetz gas station.
Preliminary plans also called for the discount store to be adjacent to a retail, office and residential complex called Wilderness Crossing. Neither the supercenter nor the larger complex would be built on the battlefield. A study commissioned by the company said the proposed site lacked historical and archaeological significance.
Keith Morris, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company believes the current plan is sensitive to the battlefield's historic importance.
"We wholeheartedly agree this project presents the unique opportunity to bring the interests of battlefield preservation and smart development effectively into balance, and that is precisely what we have accomplished with our current proposal," he said, noting that the site has been zoned for commercial development for more than 20 years and serves an area where more than 5,000 homes and compatible commercial development exist.
Jim Campi, a spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust who publicized the joint letter yesterday, said a similar proposal to find a more suitable location had been floated this year by the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, an organization of national, regional and local preservation groups.
"There are a couple options we looked at," Campi said in an interview. He said the corporation would be more respectful of the nation's history and better off economically by locating farther west on Route 3, closer to commercial centers on the way to Culpeper. Although the site had long been zoned for commercial activity, he said no one thought it might be on Wal-Mart's scale.
"What's being proposed here is four times the existing commercial at that site," Campi said.
The two candidates who hope to assume Kaine's seat -- state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) and former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell (R) -- also have publicly urged Wal-Mart to move farther from the battlefield, Campi said.

**DougCooper** · 07-16-2009, 08:01 AM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

This is a great news. It is a rare thing indeed for a Governor to get involved in a preservation issue that might be used as an economic issue against him some day - but this bi-partisan effort gives both parties some cover - a very smart way to go. I hope this means that there is a viable second site for the store and now Wal-Mart can give up and move on gracefully. Well done Gov Kaine and Speaker Howell!

**2ndNHDOC** · 07-16-2009, 12:11 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

Great so Wal-Mart moves out and Target comes in. Or industrial complex. They are so intent on stopping it then the state should put up the money and buy the land. Or at the very least eliminate the property taxes paid by the land owners since no one wants them to develope the land. Those would be an actually solution to the problem. Instead we get two pandering politicans with nothing but words. Back it up with money. We need to give the land owners a bone folks if we want them to sit on undeveloped land even if it is Wal-Mart that owns it(I admit I don't know who owns the land in question). Preservation is great but not everyone is going to lose money on property for that purpose. However money speaks louder then words.

**DougCooper** · 07-16-2009, 03:50 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

Originally posted by 2ndNHDOC View Post

Great so Wal-Mart moves out and Target comes in. Or industrial complex. They are so intent on stopping it then the state should put up the money and buy the land. Or at the very least eliminate the property taxes paid by the land owners since no one wants them to develope the land. Those would be an actually solution to the problem. Instead we get two pandering politicans with nothing but words. Back it up with money. We need to give the land owners a bone folks if we want them to sit on undeveloped land even if it is Wal-Mart that owns it(I admit I don't know who owns the land in question). Preservation is great but not everyone is going to lose money on property for that purpose. However money speaks louder then words.

Well no kidding Brian. That's the whole point...but the closest alligator to the canoe is Wal-Mart. Once that threat is removed then CWPT, et al, can begin to form the kind of solution that saved Slaughter Pen Farm and various other large tracts that is a win-win. Or, barring that, go for a zoning change. These two courageous but "pandering" (as you put it) politicians are saying they are prepared to do exactly what - help find a long term solution to not only Wal-Mart's goals but the landowners.

**2ndNHDOC** · 07-16-2009, 04:35 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

The letter says alternate location that doesn't sound like they are finding a solution for the landowners of the current site. Not to mention the letter is tad dishonest as the land is not apart of the battlefield but near the battlefield. See my gripe with the Preservation community at large myself at times included is we expect everyone to have the same passions as us. We all want to fight fight fight and deny people use of the land. Then we go away feeling enlightened while the landowners are stuck with tax bill or land they cannot sell or make any money off of. A letter is not binding it is cover for them. What is the technical assistance? Doesn't sound like monetary compensation. Where is the proposed legislation in the Virgina Congress to give the landowners some relief and/or some incentive to not develope the land or buy it outright if they are so couragous? Changing zoning rules aftter the fact for people who purchased the land in good faith as a commerical investment to develope is wrong unless some compensation is given. Not to mention it will open the county to googles of lawsuits. It is the type of thing that turns those not in the movement away from us. I am all for preservation and would love for the Wal-Mart not to be built. Having said that I still have to put myself in the other sides shoes as well. If we don't find a way to give a financial incentive for private landowners not to build we will still be there fighting again in 2 years then 5 then 10. I know I am going to be attacked for this belief but there if there is one thing I have no faith in is non-binding letters and resolutions from politicians.

**Guy Gane III** · 07-17-2009, 11:57 AM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

I can hear hearty Huzzah's and screaching Rebel Yell's.... can you hear them?? The Boys from Co. H (Heaven) have smiled down on this land.

**TJ Bartel** · 07-17-2009, 12:06 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

At least this is someting positive. Let's hope it moves the whole problem at this location in the right direction. Perhaps with Gov. Kaine involved it will garner more attention.

**CSengineer** · 07-17-2009, 04:59 PM

Re: Governor asks WalMart to seek alternate site

What a relief. I visited Spotsylvania/Wilderness/Chancellorsville in May for the first time ever, and was delighted at how much has been preserved... and terrified by how close the sprawl was getting. One of the interpreters spoke with me for about an hour on the Mule Shoe about the Wal-Mart situation. It just... I can't put it into words... how much of a crime it should be to put something as mundane and drab as a Wal-Mart anywhere near a historic site. In 40 years the tilt-up concrete walls of the Wal-Mart will crumble down. The ground below it and its sprawling parking lot will never be the same.

It's easy to churn up public outcry when it's a Wal-Mart. What if it was a children's hospital?

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