Bob Long stacks tomatoes at the Giant in the Harrison Crossing North shopping center. The store's official opening is today. Chris Wehling/THE FREE LANCE-STAR

Harrison Crossing North Shopping Center has design touches intended to ease the transition from a commercial area into the historic battlefields

Date published: 9/28/2007

BY CATHY JETT

Spotsylvania supervisors watched anxiously as development marched closer and closer to the county's Civil War battlefields.

They feared retailers, restaurants and new subdivisions had the potential to spoil the view shed for these historic attractions.

So when Silver Cos. decided to develop land on State Route 3 near Gordon and Harrison roads that was already zoned for residential and commercial development, they decided to act.

"Silver Companies could have built some amount of commercial and residential by right without any substantive approval by us," said Supervisor Hap Connors, who represents Chancellor District. "[Former Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce] Chairman Bob Hagan and myself felt it was better to sit down with Silver Companies with the goal of negotiating a better outcome for everyone."

The result is Harrison Crossing North, where a Super Giant opens today. Unlike Silver Cos.' Central Park project, this shopping center has a relatively low profile from the road thanks to an earthen berm, smaller sign and outdoor lighting that points downward.

Standard shopping-center lighting would have created a "night-glow effect that would have ruined that area," Connors said.

Historically, commercial growth in western Spotsylvania stopped at Five-Mile Fork until the 1990s, he said. At that point, there was a push from the county's planning department to allow development as far as Andora Drive. This was followed by additional rezonings allowing development further west on State Route 3.

"That's what this board has been dealing with," Connors said. "We're working with developers to create better outcomes."

Silver Cos., for example, got Home Depot to forgo its signature bright orange roof for one that matched the rest of the roofs in Harrison Crossing North, and to use brick and wrought iron in its garden center instead of a chain-link fence.

It is one of three anchors for the shopping center, along with Super Giant and Petco. Silver Cos. had originally planned to have two anchor stores and some houses in the development, but the county got the company to take away the residential aspect in exchange for a third anchor store, Connors said.

"Our goal is to hold residential to 2 percent and we consciously concentrated on commercial so we can invest in improvements while holding the tax rate down," he said.

Date published: 9/28/2007