BY CLINT SCHEMMER
Orange County supervisors are likely to hear the public's views on the Wal-Mart retail center proposed for the Wilderness battlefield area late next month or in early August.
County Administrator William C. Rolfe said yesterday that July 23 and Aug. 4 are tentative dates he has proposed for the public hearing on the issue before the Board of Supervisors.
Rolfe said he anticipates that the board will set the hearing date at its next meeting, on Tuesday. The auditorium at Orange County High School needs to be reserved and legal advertising requirements must be met.
Based on a recent conversation with board Chairman Lee Frame, Rolfe said, he doesn't believe supervisors will decide the matter the night of the hearing, preferring to have more time to fully consider the testimony.
The county Planning Com-mission endorsed the retail development Thursday night, voting 5-4 to recommend it to the supervisors with certain conditions.
Those conditions, which were negotiated with Wal-Mart by Orange's planning staff and legal counsel, attempt to nail down important details of the 236,000 -square-foot retail center proposed by JDC Ventures
The 51.6-acre tract at Routes 3 and 20 is zoned for commercial use, but under the county's "big-box" ordinance, the landowner must be granted a special-use permit to build a store larger than 60,000 square feet.
The proposal has generated national controversy over its impact to the Wilderness battlefield where Gens. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant's forces first clashed in May 1864. Foes say the issue is not Wal-Mart, but the retail center's location--a quarter-mile from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park--and the traffic and additional development it would foster.
The Planning Commission's 11 conditions cover the Wal-Mart's architecture and exterior appearance, the timing of road construction, security issues, off-site transportation improvements, buffers and landscaping, signs and historical displays.
Additionally, at the urging of Commissioner Nigel Goodwin, the panel approved a resolution urging resolution of three issues:
Setting a timetable for completion of the Supercenter and road work. Some commissioners were concerned that Wal-Mart could walk away from the project and Orange would be with left a large, vacant cleared property.
Ensuring that Wal-Mart will commit, in writing, to provide money to lengthen turn lanes along Route 20 north where it meets Route 3. For that project to work, the National Park Service would have to yield right of way, since the road is adjacent to the battlefield park.
Making sure that Lake of the Woods property owners aren't saddled with the cost of heightening or enlarging the community's smaller dam if the state Department of Conservation and Recreation decides construction of the retail center necessitates that. Two of JDC's store sites fall within the state-designated inundation zone for LOW's eastern lake. The commission wants Wal-Mart to pay 100 percent of the cost of dam work that Virginia may require.
Frame said the Board of Supervisors is not bound to follow the commissioners' recommendation, but he was impressed by their work.
"As I mentioned to the chairman of the Planning Commission earlier, they did a very thorough job of scrubbing the issues," Frame said. "Many of the questions we'll be asking have already been answered through this process."
A majority of the five supervisors is believed to support the Wal-Mart proposal.
Supervisor Teri Pace, who opposes the Wal-Mart at JDC's site, said she isn't about to call the battle over. "The board certainly has disagreed with the Planning Commission's recommendations before," Pace said.
Associated Press Writer Steve Szkotak contributed to this report.