How much are sprawl, traffic threatening Wilderness battlefield?
Date published: 3/1/2006
By RUSTY DENNEN
It is no secret that sprawl is encroaching on area Civil War battlefields.
But a report released yesterday by the Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust illustrates that the severity of the threat is both a matter of fact--and opinion.
Case in point: The trust announced that the Wilderness battlefield is among the nation's 10 most endangered by encroaching development. Wilderness made its first appearance on the trust's "History Under Siege" list in 2001.
According to the report, Orange County is being transformed from a once-rural outpost by suburbia creeping from fast-developing Spotsylvania County to the east.
So far, so good.
"Located at the bustling intersection of State Routes 3 and 20, the northern portion of the Wilderness Battlefield is particularly vulnerable," it says, noting that more than 5,000 acres of nearby land is under review for rezoning to residential and mixed use, which could pave the way for 8,000 homes.
County officials say that while development and widening State Route 20 are the subject of ongoing discussions, those numbers are flat wrong.
According to County Administrator Bill Rolfe, no such development plans are now on the table.
A developer owns more than 3,000 acres that straddle the Orange-Spotsylvania line, he said, but no plans for homes have been filed in Orange. One reason is that the county's comprehensive plan designates the area as a site for economic development, agricultural use and as a buffer for the Rappahannock River.
"I guess there are people who have said you could put 8,000 homes on [that] property," Rolfe said, but that discourse has been in the theoretical realm.
As for other potential projects, "We've had two other rezoning requests on Route 3 tabled until we get the comprehensive plan finished," he said. Those, with 700 and 748 homes respectively, are farther west, away from the battlefield, he said.
The trust report says the county population is projected to grow at 3.75 percent annually. Rolfe said the actual number, based on the latest census numbers, is closer to 2.6 percent.
Trust spokesman Jim Campi said yesterday that those numbers came from discussions last year on the latest version of the county's comprehensive plan.
Star Directory
