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County debates growth policy

Preservationists, landowners argue proposal to change county's Route 3 plan

By GEORGE WHITEHURST

Date published: 8/11/2004

By GEORGE WHITEHURST

Emotions simmered during last night's Spotsylvania County supervisors meeting as landowners and preservationists clashed over whether to restrict commercial development on State Route 3 near the Chancellorsville battlefield.

Property owners like Donna Jones decried the supervisors' effort to remove from the county's primary growth zone all of the land between Route 3 and Spotswood Furnace Road.

"As a property owner, I'm awfully tired of hearing you say, 'Let's take this property and do this with it. Oops! That was wrong, let's do this. Oops! Let's go back and correct that,'" she told the Board of Supervisors.

But preservationists hailed the supervisors for considering its willingness to move the boundary of the so-called Primary Settlement District to the east.

Mike Stevens of the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust, based in Fredericksburg, praised the move as a stride for preserving Spotsylvania's rich Civil War history and its quality of life.

"We applaud and support your vision and hopes for the future," Stevens said. "You are setting the county on the path toward a golden and glorious future and you are leaving a legacy and that will be remembered and honored as long as there are people who are proud to call themselves Spotsylvanians."

The supervisors and the Planning Commission listened to such arguments for nearly two hours during a joint public hearing. At Commission Chairman Hugh Montgomery's behest, neither board acted last night. Both bodies will vote individually on the matter.

Spotsylvania businessman John Mullins, whose 800-acre farm is the epicenter of the conflict, implored the supervisors not to remove his property and that of others from the county's Primary Settlement District.

Though Mullins repeatedly has announced his intention to develop his land for commercial and residential use, he also has made overtures to heritage organizations. Should the supervisors remove his property from the PSD, a tentative deal under way with the preservationists will collapse, he hinted last night.

"If there can't be a meeting of the minds we have no choice but to allow Toll Brothers to complete their project," he said. "I'm under contract."

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Date published: 8/11/2004