Williamsburg- Hancock

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

Look gang- we have had over 600 view of this post. With those numbers we could be making an impact. Heres the letter- feel free to personalize it but lets beat the assembly and save this property.

planning@yorkcounty.gov, zaremba@yorkcounty.gov, noll@yorkcounty.gov, wiggins@yorkcounty.gov, hrichak@yorkcounty.gov,shepperd@yorkcounty.gov

Dear Sir/Madam,
It has come to my attention that there are plans to add or maintain a “mixed use” overlay on two parcels of land making them more accessible to development. I feel strongly that this overlay should not be allowed on the Egger or Busch tracts and that they should be added to the York County Historic Resources list. Certainty this national treasure should not be thrown away for more unsustainable development.
These two parcels fall within the “Core Battlefield Boundaries” as well as a potential area for National Register nomination as identified by the American Battlefield Protection Program. These parcels have been meticulously researched by regional and nationally renowned historians and organizations as having incredible prehistoric, 17th, 18th and impeccable 19th century history associated with them.
As a historian and tourist I stand beside the Navy, National Park Service and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust in opposition to this “mixed use” overlay and implore the County to add the parcels to their Historic Resources list. This would clear the way for a coalition to preserve the site for perpetuity- protecting our Nation's history, County tax payers and adjacent property owners. I implore the County to work with the property owners and organizations like the Navy, NPS, Williamsburg Land Conservancy, Civil War Trust and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust to find a solution.
Sincerely,
(Your name and Address)

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

August 18, 2013

http://www.dailypress.com/news/york-county/dp-nws-york-land-use-concerns-20130818,0,1065956.story?page=1

YORK — Just off the Colonial Parkway in a wooded area near Jones Pond what looks like rugged, undeveloped terrain is really something much more significant.

The large sloping landscape is really the hidden remains of one of the most significant redoubts from the 1862 Battle of Williamsburg during the Civil War. That redoubt and several hundred acres in the area bounded by the Colonial Parkway, Interstate 64 and Penniman Road are at the center of a debate about land use, economic development, property rights and historic preservation.

The two York County properties include 250 acres owned by the Egger family and around 141 acres owned by Anheuser-Busch. Both properties have come under scrutiny over whether they should receive a mixed-use designation for both commercial and residential development in the county's Comprehensive Plan, which lays out land use goals for the county.

The Eggers and Busch executives want the mixed-use designation to make their properties more attractive to developers. Officials from the Colonial National Historical Park and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown have expressed concerns over development there encroaching on their properties. Historic preservationists say they would like to see the land protected.

The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan this week. Supervisor Chairman Walt Zaremba, whose district includes the Egger and Busch properties, sees the challenge as balancing the issues of encroachment with private property rights and the historic value of the land.

"For me the playing field is level," Zaremba said. "The scales are just about as equal as they can be at this point."

Land use

How much of the Egger and Busch properties should be designated for mixed-use has been a focus of the Planning Commission's discussions in updating the Comprehensive Plan. A mixed-use designation does not confer zoning rights and any mixed-use project on those properties would have to receive a special use permit with approval from the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Both the Egger and Busch properties are now zoned for commercial development.

The Egger property has had a mixed-use designation since 2005. Executives with Anheuser-Busch began lobbying last year for a mixed-use designation for their property, which is adjacent to the Egger property, as part of the Comprehensive Plan review.

Busch has a sale agreement for its property with local developer Mid-Atlantic Commercial, which hinges on the property being designated for mixed-use. The Egger property, which is landlocked behind the Busch property with no immediate access to roads or utilities, remains undeveloped.

As part of the Comprehensive Plan review, planning staff initially proposed to shift the mixed-use designation away from the bulk of the Egger property to the Busch property and the nearby Marquis shopping center off Route 199.

In January, Matt Egger, one of several family members who own the Egger property, wrote to York County planners saying the property "would be ideal for development as a master-planned community…probably in conjunction with the development of the Busch property." According to York County planning documents, Egger previously hired Mid-Atlantic as a consultant for his property.

In response to Egger's concerns, the Planning Commission left the mixed-use designation in place and expanded it to include the Busch and Marquis properties. The current proposal involves around 985 acres extending from the Colonial Parkway near Jones Pond to the Route 199/Interstate 64 interchange.

At a recent joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, commissioners said they felt like expanding mixed use across the entire area wasn't a problem.

"It merely grants an opportunity to make a proposal later," said Planning Commissioner Mark Suiter.

Encroachment

Officials with the Navy and Colonial National Historical Park say development on the Busch and Egger properties could be a threat to Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and the Colonial Parkway.

Park Superintendent Dan Smith and Capt. Lowell Crow, commanding officer of the weapons station, have submitted letters and spoken at Planning Commission meetings.

In an interview, Smith said the parkway has a 300-foot buffer on either side of the road that runs the entire length of the 23-mile route from Jamestown to Yorktown. That buffer, Smith said, will prevent any developer from running utilities under the parkway to the Egger property. It's also unlikely the National Park Service would provide a right-of-way to allow access to the property from the parkway.

Another concern for Smith is the effect of storm water runoff on the parkway created by new development.

The Busch and Egger properties were identified as areas of concern in the weapons station's Encroachment Action Plan that it completed last year. Crow, in an interview, said he would prefer no development on either property but that he could support commercial or industrial businesses.

Crow's main concern comes from the potential for residential development with a mixed-use designation. Since 2010 the area around Jones Pond has been regularly used for special operations training. Homes and apartments in the area could increase light interference on training exercises as well as interference from electro-magnetic emissions from things like cell phones. Residences could also increase the incidents of trespassing on the base.

Michael Taylor, vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Anheuser-Busch, said at a Planning Commission meeting in June that Busch would be willing to take steps to limit the effect of any development on the base like adding additional fencing or using low-impact lighting.

The Navy has suggested creating a 2,500-foot buffer around the military base to prevent encroachment, an idea that Matt Egger opposes.

Egger has said he would be willing to enter into a lease with the Navy but that he would like to get "full market value, not a value diminished by the…extinguishment of my mixed-use overlay designation."

Egger's father, Mathias Egger, purchased the property in 1972 for $90,000. At that time, it included almost 300 acres. The family sold 36 acres in 2006 to Centex Homes. The remaining 250 acres is assessed for $2.26 million.

Preservation

Some of the last major development on the Egger property came in May of 1862, when fortifications were built as part of the Battle of Williamsburg during the Civil War. A fortification known as Redoubt 11 is still on the property and has gone largely untouched for more than 150 years.

In the last few months historic preservation groups have begun to speak out about the future of the Egger and Busch properties, saying they are too historically significant to bulldoze for new homes or businesses.

Among the groups championing the properties is the Williamsburg Battlefield Trust. Tom McMahon, a founding member of the Williamsburg Battlefield Trust, feels the issue is the balance between the property rights of the two land owners and the historic value of the property that "belongs to everyone."

McMahon and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust member Drew Gruber envision some kind of land trust for all or part of the properties with the battlefield trust managing the property, though they admit the trust doesn't have the money to buy the land itself.

The W.S. Hancock Society, which promotes the history of Union commander Winfield Scott Hancock, who was among the key players of the Battle of Williamsburg, has also lobbied for the preservation of the property. Bruce Stocking, education coordinator for the society, said his group would be willing to provide support to the battlefield trust in terms of offering assistance with historic interpretation of the property.

"To save a historic field like that does a lot of things, it preserves a piece of American history and provides an area still in its natural state," Stocking said. "Local economy-wise, history sells. Colonial Williamsburg proves that, Yorktown and Jamestown prove that."

Resolution

It's unclear whether Anheuser-Busch, which is already poised to sell its property, would be willing to sell any of its land to create a land trust. But Matt Egger said the Civil War Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Civil War battlefields, approached him about his property about three years ago. The Eggers and the trust are still in discussions.

Egger said he's also met with Crow at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and told him "he's welcome to buy anything he wants" to create a buffer for the weapons station.

Jim Campi, policy and communications director for the Civil War Trust, declined to comment specifically on the Egger property but said that in general the trust is "very interested in preserving land associated with the Battle of Williamsburg."

Crow said he has been in discussions with the Civil War Trust since last year about partnering with the Navy through the Department of Defense's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program which would provide some funding to help the trust purchase the property. Crow said his goal would be for the trust to own the property with a restrictive easement to avoid future development.

One agency that might not step up to help preserve the property is the Colonial National Historical Park. Park Superintendent Dan Smith said his park is not allowed to acquire land and any land purchase would be up to higher level officials in the National Park Service.

Smith said it was also unlikely that the park would create a turnout along the parkway at the redoubt.

"I do not see a role for Colonial to make a big effort to further interpret that area," he said.

With Egger, the land's historic value doesn't fall on deaf ears.

"I always envisioned that the redoubt and the area around it would be preserved," he said. "I'd like to see someone clean up the redoubt, cut down the trees, and open it up with signage that explains the significance of the area.

"Whether or not something like that happens, at the end of the day I don't know."

Weigh In

The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in York Hall at 301 Main St., Yorktown.

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

This article not only has a movie from local historian Carson Hudson but also audio of a citizen of Williamsburg who witnessed the battle.

http://www.dailypress.com/features/family/dp-nws-battle-of-williamsburg-20130818,0,996984,print.story

The Battle of Williamsburg was nearly 10 hours old and showing signs of winding down when the gray-clad soldiers of the 24th Virginia Infantry erupted from a York County wood and hurled themselves across a broad wheat field.

A mile to their right, the chaotic daylong struggle in the rain, smoke and mud had already ground up more than 3,000 dead, wounded and missing men — and only a preposterously heroic charge led by a one-armed Union general had saved the exhausted left wing of the Army of the Potomac from disaster.

But as grim as the clash in the Bloody Ravine had been, the brutal fight that unfolded in the knee-high wheat at Redoubt 11 would add still more steel and blood to a telling if too often forgotten battle.

In just 23 minutes of combat, a little-known Union brigade commander would show the same grit and nerve that made him a hero at Gettysburg — and tagged "Hancock the Superb" as one of the North's best generals, says Carson Hudson, author of "Civil War Williamsburg."

The 24th would be joined by the 5th North Carolina in a valiant but doomed assault that foreshadowed Pickett's famous charge — and which soldiers on both sides later singled out as unusually heroic even by Civil War standards.

When the shooting stopped, more than 200 Virginians lay dead and wounded in the York County mud — leaving only half the unit standing. Just 75 of the 415 Tar Heels who stormed the stubborn Union line reported at roll call the next morning.

Many of the fallen are believed to lie in unmarked graves on an elbow of wooded land bounded by I-64 and the Colonial Parkway. Though largely undisturbed since their deaths, it's been marked for mixed-use development.

"Williamsburg was an accidental battle. The outcome wasn't clear-cut. And partly because of that its significance has been overlooked," Hudson says.

"But if you look at the figures who stood out on the battlefield, this is where the war started to sort out who was brave, who was a coward — who was good, and who wasn't — in the two most important armies of the Civil War, and every soldier here knew it."

Nobody expected the fight that broke out near Williamsburg after the Confederate army abandoned its Warwick River defenses on the night of May 3, 1862 and began retreating west toward Richmond.

Doggedly pursued by Union cavalry, Brig. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's rear guard narrowly escaped after a clash outside town late the following day. So serious was the looming threat that Gen. Joseph E. Johnston wheeled one of his divisions around and ordered it to man a string of earthen forts that stretched from Kingsmill on the James River to Queens Creek on the York.

Taking up their posts in the dark and rain, Maj. Gen. James Longstreet's men didn't know the terrain or the defenses that had been occupied by other units well on their way to Richmond. And when Union Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Hooker launched a fierce but badly coordinated attack early on May 5, no one in gray realized that the outermost redoubts had been forgotten.

"Longstreet literally didn't know how far his line extended," Hudson says, "or that these forts existed."

For much of the fragmented battle that crucial oversight didn't matter.

Hooker's dangerous attack on the Confederate right commanded all the attention as his men ground forward in an attempt to cross a tangled belt of felled trees under heavy fire.

Blinding rain, broken ground and an uphill climb added to the perils of the assault across the Bloody Ravine. But the Union men still pushed the Southerners back into their redoubts and the main fortification at Fort Magruder.

After hours of close, hard fighting, however, Hooker's exhausted troops found themselves stranded with little ammunition and no sign of support from a division that waited with its arms stacked in the woods only a mile away. So they fell back, then crumbled under an assault led by Gens. George Pickett and A.P. Hill.

If not for a Union band that stopped to play "Yankee Doodle" and the national anthem, the wavering blue line might have dissolved. But then they rallied with a cheer, sparking a roaring reply from 2,000 mud-splattered troops just arrived from Yorktown.

"I'm a one-armed Jersey son-of-a-gun! Follow me!" Brig. Gen. Phillip Kearny yelled as he took his horse's reins in his teeth, extended his sword and led a bruising counter-assault.

"Kearny was such a terrific leader. He saved the Union left flank," says Carol Kettenburg Dubbs, author of "Defend this Old Town: Williamsburg During the Civil War."

"It's too bad — for the North, at least — that he was killed a few months later."

Looking on from his vantage point on the Union right, Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock may have been the only commander on either side to see so much of the battle.

But he and his 3,400 men — who had marched wide to the right and then crossed back over a narrow mill dam in a column only four soldiers wide — also waited hours for the reinforcements needed to menace the wide-open Confederate flank.

Three times Union commander Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner sent units to bolster Hancock's exposed force. Three times his fear of an attack on his center led him to call them back.

"Put yourself in Sumner's position," Dubbs says. "He could hear the sound of battle all around him. But he couldn't see it because there were so many trees. So he was being very careful."

Despite his worrisome numbers, Hancock leapfrogged from an unmanned redoubt overlooking an arm of Queens Creek to another fort 1,200 yards closer to the Confederate center.

He then deployed his men 600 yards in front of the redoubt and began shelling Fort Magruder.

Instead of dispatching reinforcements, however, Sumner ordered Hancock to withdraw. The cursing Pennsylvanian sent officer after officer back to plead for more men while he found ways to stall.

On the Confederate side of the line, the Union threat went unchallenged until Hancock — scorning a Southern signalman's query — hoisted the Stars and Stripes atop Redoubt 11.

So sharp was Hancock's subsequent cannon fire that Longstreet had to call on Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill's division retreating west of Williamsburg for help.

Joining the 24th Virginia under Brig. Gen. Jubal Early — who had double-timed down Duke of Gloucester Street from the College of William and Mary — Hill sent the 5th N.C. and two more regiments through a thick, tangled wood toward the sound of Hancock's guns. But so difficult and disorienting was the trek that the gray line broke apart, losing the two middle units, Dubbs says.

The first to emerge was the 24th, which charged into the wheat field without waiting. Badly out of position, they found themselves exposed to punishing flanking fire that toppled Early with a bloody neck wound. Yet still they wheeled left in a perilous charge, encouraged by the sight of Hancock's men pulling back as he took up a better defensive line before the redoubt.

The 5th N.C. saw the apparent retreat, too, as they burst from the woods far to the right and rushed toward comrades. But instead of scattering before the yelled taunts of "Ball's Bluff! Bull Run!", the Federals turned and fired, then rolled the gray tide back at the last second with a crushing counter-charge.

"It was so well-timed," Dubbs says. "It was the deciding point of the battle."

Long after Williamsburg had been eclipsed by bigger, more famous clashes, soldiers on both sides recalled the heroism of the Confederate charge and the ferocity of the Union stand as landmark moments.

Hill never looked back on the slaughter without pain. And even after withstanding Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, Hancock called the assault "immortal."

"Williamsburg was the bloodiest battle that had been seen in the east to that day," historian John V. Quarstein says.

"And this was its great crescendo."

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

Alright gang, tomorrow night is the final meeting. Now or never. Please take two seconds to write in or forever call yourself a farb. No seriously, it's now or never.

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

The infamous Greg Starbuck wrote an email. Have you?


Dear Sir or Madam,
I understand that there are plans to add or maintain a “mixed use” overlay on two parcels of land making them more accessible to development. I feel strongly that this overlay should not be allowed on the Egger or Busch tracts and that they should be added to the York County Historic Resources list.
I strongly feel that this important resource should not be developed, except as a battlefield/heritage area. As chair of the Lynchburg Regional Tourism Board I can attest to the efficacy of heritage tourism, particularly Civil War tourism.
The statistics and data support the value of Civil War tourism. For detailed economic analysis I recommend you contact the Civil War Trust. They have conducted several economic studies that will make your decision an easy one.
Simply, I implore you to preserve the Williamsburg battlefield area. You have been given a national treasure that can provide economic, educational, and environmental benefits if preserved as a greenspace/heritage area. Please do not designate this area as mixed use, instead, please add this property to your historic resources inventory so that future generations can understand the sacrifices made by previous generations.
Respectfully,
Greg Starbuck, Director
Historic Sandusky/Lynchburg College
Chair/Lynchburg Regional Tourism Board
757 Sandusky Drive
Lynchburg, Virginia 24502
434.832.0162







planning@yorkcounty.gov, zaremba@yorkcounty.gov, noll@yorkcounty.gov, wiggins@yorkcounty.gov, hrichak@yorkcounty.gov,shepperd@yorkcounty.gov

Dear Sir/Madam,
It has come to my attention that there are plans to add or maintain a “mixed use” overlay on two parcels of land making them more accessible to development. I feel strongly that this overlay should not be allowed on the Egger or Busch tracts and that they should be added to the York County Historic Resources list. Certainty this national treasure should not be thrown away for more unsustainable development.
These two parcels fall within the “Core Battlefield Boundaries” as well as a potential area for National Register nomination as identified by the American Battlefield Protection Program. These parcels have been meticulously researched by regional and nationally renowned historians and organizations as having incredible prehistoric, 17th, 18th and impeccable 19th century history associated with them.
As a historian and tourist I stand beside the Navy, National Park Service and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust in opposition to this “mixed use” overlay and implore the County to add the parcels to their Historic Resources list. This would clear the way for a coalition to preserve the site for perpetuity- protecting our Nation's history, County tax payers and adjacent property owners. I implore the County to work with the property owners and organizations like the Navy, NPS, Williamsburg Land Conservancy, Civil War Trust and Williamsburg Battlefield Trust to find a solution.
Sincerely,
(Your name and Address)

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

All,
Tonight is the vote. We have had over one thousands views on this page and only one person comment besides me. I hope some of you have taken time to write in. I will post the results tomorrow morning.
Drew

[Chad Greene]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

I sent emails today to all commissioners. General Hancock was one of the finest generals the war produced as well as a fine American who gave everything he had to the men who served under him. Virginia is destroying her history and sprawl is devouring her historic countryside. I urge everyone to send emails!!!!! We cannot just be voiceless men who dress up in archaic uniforms. We must act for the preservation of these places!
Email these people today!
Chad Greene

[WpnsMan]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

Here, here Chad!

Drew,
whatever the outcome, you should be commended for fighting the good fight.

To favorable winds and victory!

[Busterbuttonboy]

Re: Williamsburg- Hancock

Thanks to those few who wrote in.



York Supervisors Approve Comp Plan Despite Objections from Feds, Preservationists

The York County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 at a Tuesday work session to approve the draft update of the comprehensive plan for the county after a conversation centered on whether to allow mixed-use development on two undeveloped tracts of land with historical significance despite resistance from the U.S. Navy, the National Park Service and historical preservation groups.

Much of the conversation prior to the vote focused on the two tracts of land in Upper York County near the intersection of Interstate 64 and Route 199 (exit 242) and the intersection of I-64 and the Colonial Parkway.

The supervisors voted 3-2 to apply a mixed-use overlay to one of the tracts of land and the Marquis at Williamsburg; that plan also maintains an existing overlay on the other tract of land, known as the Egger tract. While the overlay does not change the zoning designation of the land, it identifies it as having potential for mixed-use development.

Supervisors Sheila Noll and George Hrichak wanted to see the overlay applied to the Marquis and to one of the tracts of land — the one closer to Route 199 that is owned by Anheuser Busch — while removing the existing overlay on the Egger tract. The Egger tract has had an overlay on it since 2005.

Prior to their discussion of the land, Historian John Quarstein delivered a comprehensive narrative of the Civil War’s Battle of Williamsburg, a bloody fight in May of 1862 extending from the Egger tract to Fort Magruder. Hundreds of Confederate soldiers were killed on the Egger tract in what proved to be a decisive moment in that battle, which came as the Union Army advanced toward Richmond early in the war.

In recent weeks, preservationist groups began appealing to the supervisors to not approve a mixed-use overlay on the land out of fear development could compromise one of the last undeveloped sites of that battle. The U.S. Navy and National Park Service both own land that abuts the Egger tract, and people representing those groups have said at past meetings they don’t want to see mixed-use development on that land either.

While the final decision goes against comments made by preservationists, the U.S. Navy and NPS, it does side with the property owners, who have advocated for the mixed-use overlay at past hearings. Matt Egger, a member of the family that owns the Egger tract, has said in the past he wants the overlay to remain. Anheuser Busch, which has had spokespeople come to previous hearings to voice support for the overlay, has a contract in place with Mid-Atlantic Properties to develop its land in the area. A spokesperson for the Marquis at Williamsburg said at a past hearing that national retailers have told the owners of the development they don’t want to develop there until more residences exist nearby.

Chairman Walt Zaremba said applying the overlay to all of the land put the most pressure on the preservationists, the Park Service, the Navy and the property owners to work out a deal and that the passage of the comprehensive plan did not decide anything about the future of the land. He urged the different parties in the dispute over the two tracts of land to meet and discuss what to do.

Supervisor Thomas Shepperd said the overlay was needed from an economic perspective, especially at the Marquis at Williamsburg. He said he did not see a reason to remove the overlay that exists on the Egger tract and that if the situation is handled correctly, preservation is still possible.

Noll said the overlay in place since 2005 on the Egger tract has not done any good for possible development of the land.

“Just because it was in the comprehensive plan doesn’t mean it should remain in it,” Noll said. “They had the opportunity, and nothing came from it.”

Quarstein, who has experience preserving other historically significant land in the area — including Lee Hall in Newport News — said preservation is important on the Egger tract because of its significance in the Civil War and the fact that much of the other land that was in that battle has been built upon.

“There’s no doubt this is a doable thing,” Quarstein said of preserving the land. “[The Egger tract] is the best-preserved section of the battlefield. It’s a tremendous site.”

The supervisors were required by Virginia law to hold a public hearing for the comprehensive plan prior to voting on it. That hearing, which happened Aug. 20, featured more than a dozen people speaking in favor of preservation. Other speakers were in favor of the overlay, saying the lack of residential rooftops near the Marquis at Williamsburg has caused the development to suffer.

The implications to potential preservation of the land from the board’s decision to apply the overlay are unclear. The U.S. Navy secured funding two weeks ago from the Department of Defense that would allow it to purchase conservation easements on the land. Under that plan, the land would still need to be purchased by a preservation-minded group before it could be preserved.

The supervisors were approaching the end of the window of time they had to take action on the comprehensive plan. The York County Planning Commission sent the draft update to the supervisors June 10, leaving a 90-day window for the supervisors to take action. That window would have expired Sept. 10.

Click here to read more about the comprehensive plan. Virginia law requires localities to have a comprehensive plan that outlines existing conditions and trends while examining the future needs of its residents.

http://wydaily.com/2013/09/04/york-supervisors-approve-comp-plan-despite-objections-from-feds-preservationists/