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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."
As he left the hearing, Mullins declined to discuss the matter with reporters or with Spotsylvania resident Amy Miller, who criticized him as she spoke in favor of removing his land from the settlement zone.
"I'd like to take just an hour and tell you the truth," Mullins said after shaking her hand. Miller gestured to a nearby bench, inviting him to sit down for a chat. Mullins shook his head and walked out of the Holbert building.
More than 120 people packed the meeting room and spilled out into the hall during the hearing--a symbol of the pressure building as the supervisors weigh strategies for managing Spotsylvania's growth.
Slow-growth advocates argued that more development along Route 3 will further clog roads, cause more pollution and degrade the area's quality of life.
Alfred King recalled that when he first moved to the county years ago, he got from his home on Route 3 to downtown Fredericksburg in about 18 minutes. Now, that commute takes about 30 minutes, he said, before reminding the supervisors of their campaign platform last year.
"I think every single member of the Board of Supervisors who ran last year ran directly or indirectly on the platform of trying to hold Spotsylvania's growth down to 2 percent a year," he said. "This proposed reduction of the PSD is merely one small step"
But Joe Richardelli, who, along with his wife, owns a small parcel in the disputed area, sees hypocrisy in such comments.
"We have about two acres, and we want to sell it and develop it," he said. "Now, all of you don't want it. If you really like the land that much, come to us and buy it, but you're going to pay commercial property rates."
The opening shots in the battle were fired in June when the supervisors ordered the Planning Department to draw up plans for removing the land from the district. Should that happen, developers wouldn't be able to obtain county water and sewer for any projects they build there.
In December 1999, a lame-duck Board of Supervisors had rezoned 55 acres of the Mullins farm for commercial use. Critics argued the board changed the zoning simply to help Mullins.
Mullins disputed that assertion last night. "There's a Board of Supervisors member here that knows the truth how that farm was put in the Primary Settlement ," he said. "Not by the Mullins family's request, but by county action. I hope he'll share that with you."
In 2002, the supervisors placed the farm in the district as part of a countywide overhaul of zoning rules. They reasoned that a planned beltway around Fredericksburg would prime the area for development. But the so-called Outer Connector was shelved late last year.
That, combined with preservationists' concerns, led the new, slow-growth board to consider removing the land from the PSD.
To reach GEORGE WHITEHURST: 540/374-5438 gwhitehurst@freelancestar.com