RELATED:Orange builder offers Wal-Mart 75 acres west of battlefield
BY CLINT SCHEMMER
A split Orange County Planning Commission last night endorsed a Wal-Mart retail center proposed in the Wilderness battlefield area.
The 11-member advisory panel voted 5-4 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve a proposal by JDC Ventures of Vienna for the 51.6-acre commercial development. JDC must obtain a special-use permit for the center because of the size of Wal-Mart's proposed 138,000-square-foot store.
The tract, one-quarter mile from the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, has been zoned for commercial use since the early 1970s. Last year Orange adopted a big-box ordinance requiring a special-use permit for stores of more than 60,000 square feet.
JDC's development plan, of which the Wal-Mart Supercenter constitutes about 60 percent, has generated national controversy over its impact to the park and the Wilderness battlefield where Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant's forces first clashed in May 1864.
The proposed retail site is outside the national park boundary but within the area defined for further study for possible historical significance.
A coalition of local and national groups has been battling the proposal since last summer. The issue, the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition has said, is not Wal-Mart, but its location near the park and the traffic and additional development it would spawn.
Commissioners Cory Hefner, William Speiden, David Kovarik, Donald Brooks and Will Likins, the panel's chairman, spoke in favor of JDC's proposal. Commissioner Elliott Fox Jr. could not attend the meeting but issued a statement supporting the project.
Likins said that though he doesn't like Wal-Mart per se, Orange County needs the tax revenue and jobs the store will provide.
At a commissioner's request, Wal-Mart presented an economic impact study last night asserting that its store and the associated retail stores on the site will generate $800,000 per year in tax revenue for Orange and 622 jobs once they're built and operating. Months earlier, Wal-Mart had told county officials the Supercenter alone would create $500,000 in annual tax revenue and 300 jobs.
Likins urged his colleagues not to let the emotions raised by preservationists carry the day.
"If the county denies this permit, we'll lose all control, as we did with the Sheetz [at Wilderness Corner]," Likins said. "We could end up with something desperately worse than this proposal."
On the other side, Commissioners Nigel Goodwin, Walter Smith, Terry Apperson and Thomas Bundy argued against the development.
"There's no guarantee that this is going to be a net revenue generator for Orange County," Goodwin said.
Bundy said allowing the retail center, many times the size of the total retail development now nearby, would compound bad decisions Orange officials made years ago in zoning the site.
Supervisor Teri Pace also sits on the Planning Commission. She participated in the discussion last night but did not vote.
Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris said he was pleased by the commission's action after months of intense public debate but said there's still a long way to go, as supervisors make the final decision on the project. He anticipates that the board will probably take up the issue in August.
Jim Campi of the Civil War Preservation Trust expressed disappointment in the commission's recommendation.
"The Orange County Planning Commission's vote is deeply disappointing and very problematic," said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "The commission's approval ignores alternate available sites in Orange County, the many local and national voices raised in opposition, and the sanctity of this historic site."
Public comment at a Planning Commission hearing several weeks ago ran 2-1 against the retail center adjoining Wilderness Run north of State Route 3, near the State Route 20 intersection.
Last night, the commission went over JDC's proposal in detail, attaching a number of conditions to its recommendation.
Several commissioners raised concerns about whether Wal-Mart would provide enough funding to the Sheriff's Office to offset the increase in crime and security problems the store will cause.
Thomas Kleine, Wal-Mart's Richmond lawyer, said the company estimated the store would prompt 400 annual calls--one and a half per day--to the Sheriff's Office. Brooks pushed Wal-Mart to provide $325,000 per year in escrow to help pay the cost of additional law enforcement, beyond the one 24-hour on-site security patrol Wal-Mart is offering to provide.
Clint Schemmer: 540/368-5029
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com