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CANDIDATES WEIGH IN ON WILDERNESS WAL-MART
Deeds, McAuliffe ask Wal-Mart to build its Orange County store farther from Wilderness battlefield; McDonnell urges compromise; Moran favors preservation
Date published: 6/6/2009
By CLINT SCHEMMER Virginia's gubernatorial candidates commented yesterday on the Wilderness Wal-Mart development proposed in Orange County. The trio competing in Tuesday's Democratic primary took stands for preservation, while the GOP nominee expressed confidence that Orange officials will find a middle ground in the land-use controversy. Democrat Creigh Deeds' campaign released a letter he wrote Michael T. Duke, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., imploring him to move the retailer's Supercenter away from the Civil War battlefield. Noting that Orange County derives tax revenue from tourism to its historic sites, which include the Wilderness battlefield, the state senator said "the history and economic interests of Orange County demand that the site be preserved." " The opponents of the proposed project have identified [alternative] sites within two or three miles of the current site," he wrote Duke. "With this compromise, we can continue to preserve the land and history of the Wilderness battlefield while still providing your company a location for a store." During a swing through downtown Fredericksburg yesterday afternoon, Deeds said he wrote Duke about six weeks ago. Some individuals from Orange County "alerted me to the issue, and I thought it was worth pursuing," he said. "What we have here is something that no one else has. History tourists spend more per capita than any other tourists. "We're coming up on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which is going to be huge," Deeds said. "I predict it will be bigger than the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement." "I considered it an obligation," he said of writing Duke. Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, also wrote Wal-Mart's CEO. He asked Duke to "consider moving the Wal-Mart a little ways down the road so that we can preserve this historic site. The Wal-Mart you are building could potentially jeopardize the most popular tourist attraction in Orange County."
Date published: 6/6/2009
How about the Nature Conservancy approach?
(posted by
larryg
, June 7, 2009 9:00 am)
The Nature Conservancy has a rotating fund where it steps
in to save areas that are under imminent threat... but then
they look at each property to see if they can save the most
important part of it and then recover their money to
replenish their fund from other less important parts of the
parcel?
That certainly is an approach that has worked before even
for the Civil War Preservation folks...
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