-

Courthouse Bypass changes irk many; group eager to help preserve buffer next to battlefield

Date published: 9/1/2005

By EDIE GROSS

A national preservation group is offering to partner with the Virginia Department of Transportation in an effort to keep land near the Spotsylvania Court House battlefield from being encroached upon.

The Civil War Preservation Trust opposes recent changes that VDOT has made to the Spotsylvania Courthouse Bypass project, changes the organization says could subject a large piece of land north of the bypass--and next to the battlefield--to greater development.

The organization has urged VDOT to limit access from the bypass to that property. But transportation officials say that if they do so, they'll have to pay the landowner a considerable amount in damages.

That's money that would come out of the construction budget and probably delay the $43 million road project, which has been in the works since the 1960s.

Jim Campi, the trust's policy and communications director, said this week that his group is willing to pool its money with VDOT's to ensure the land is preserved and the road project moves forward.

"The truth of the matter is we don't want to get in a huge fight about it," Campi said. "If the concern was that it's too expensive [to limit access to the land], we'd be willing to partner with VDOT to cover some of those costs."

VDOT's Fredericksburg District administrator, Dave Ogle, said he's interested in the trust's offer, but his agency can't use road-construction money to buy land that it's not building on.

VDOT needs only about 12 acres of the 188-acre Alrich property for the bypass project. Purchasing and preserving the rest would be up to the Civil War trust or another buyer, Ogle said.

"I can understand how you have to have somebody to lash out at, but the truth is I certainly have no problem whatsoever with that property never being developed," Ogle said. "I have no problem whatsoever with it becoming part of the National Park Service.

"I just don't feel it's proper or appropriate that land be acquired with transportation dollars and then turned over [to another organization]," he said. "The dollars we have are supposed to be used for the transportation system."

Campi said his organization could try to tap into VDOT's enhancement grant funds, which have been used for battlefield preservation in the past.

Read more stories about Fredericksburg
Date published: 9/1/2005