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A plan for a Wal-Mart in Orange County calls for an indoor retail area of 133,481 square feet, with a 4,748-square-foot outdoor garden center.
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An Orange County official has asked a developer to use 3-D computer imagery to show the impact a proposed Wal-Mart will have on the scenery in the Wilderness Battlefield area.
Community Development Director David Grover said he has asked JDC Ventures of Vienna for a "computerized view-shed analysis" to supplement its request for a special-use permit to build the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Grover said the application filed with his office Friday "appears to be largely complete."
The Wal-Mart would cover 19.5 acres of a 51.5-acre commercially zoned tract a quarter-mile off State Route 3 just inside the border of Orange and Spotsylvania counties.
The slightly revised site plan shows the store's indoor retail area would cover 133,481 square feet, with a 4,748-square-foot outdoor garden center. It would not offer auto repair or sell fuel.
In addition to Wal-Mart, the developer's plan includes three out-parcels totaling 14.5 acres for retail development. The rest of the tract, adjacent to Wilderness Run, is in a 100-year flood plain and can't be developed.
A special-use permit is required by the county's ordinance for retail stores of more than 60,000 square feet. Supervisors passed the big-box ordinance in June in anticipation of the Wal-Mart proposal.
Although it is not required by the big-box ordinance, Grover said he has asked the developer to prepare a visual-impact analysis of the proposed development.
Historical preservation groups say the Supercenter is a bad fit with the nearby Wilderness Civil War battlefield and have asked Wal-Mart to seek another site in the county. And some in the county have raised concerns about development's impact on the Route 3 area, separate from the battlefield issue.
Grover said a visual-impact assessment "can superimpose the building on the site and create 3-D views from that site."
"It allows you to show what it's going to look like from different points. I'm concerned about how it's going to look from Route 3 and approaching Orange County from the east," he said.
While the Wal-Mart plan has remained essentially the same as the preliminary site plan submitted in the spring, some changes have been made.
Included in the application is a traffic-impact analysis that puts one entrance to the retail area on a road to be built opposite State Route 20. It would run between an existing 7-Eleven and Wachovia Bank and wind behind an existing strip mall.
The new road would cross adjacent parcels to get to the Wal-Mart parking lot. According to Grover, the developer has not yet included these parcels in the application.
"The [permit] has to cover all the parcels," Grover said, "because I have to be able to propose conditions that would deal with the entire property.
"Our biggest concern is the visual impact of all development on this property," he added. "There are three parcels between Route 3 and the Wal-Mart parking lot that have been identified for future retail use and we want to be able to include buffering for all the pad sites."
A second proposed access road from Route 3 involves a right turns only in and out of the retail center. It would be approximately 870 feet west of the entrance road opposite Route 20 and would connect with a crossover leading to McDonald's, Sheetz, a strip mall and a used-car lot on Route 3.
The north side of Route 3, where the Wal-Mart is planned, is designated an economic-development area in the county's comprehensive plan. A separate 900-acre mixed-use retail, office and commercial development called Wilderness Crossing has been proposed for the area around the Wal-Mart site.
In addition to the traffic analysis, the permit application for Wal-Mart also includes a cultural-resources study that found nothing of historical significance on the property.
Grover said the report by Dovetail Cultural Resource Group of Fredericksburg found a small portion of a Civil War trench line on the Wilderness Crossing property and a possible overnight campsite near Wilderness Run, but nothing that "rises to the level of being included on the National Register of Historic Places."
"We're pretty sure not much was going on on this land," he said.
An environmental analysis requested by Grover also found no significant impact to be expected by the development.
The application will be reviewed in January, and Grover expects to submit it to the county Planning Commission in late February.
Public hearings must be held by the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors, which has final say on the permit.
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net
