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Seeking win-win in store debate
Orange county administrator urges supervisors to consider other sites for proposed Wal-MartDate published: 7/1/2009 As the debate over a proposed Wilderness area Wal-Mart moves to the Orange supervisors, County Administrator Bill Rolfe has quietly thrown his ideas into the mix. Rolfe suggests that supervisors could end the 10-month-old national controversy by shifting the proposed retail center away from the Wilderness battlefield and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. "The question that begs to be asked is, 'Why isn't the county trying to broker a deal that keeps Wal-Mart in the county and moves it further away from the congressionally approved boundary line of the Wilderness Battlefield?' Both would be in our best interest," Rolfe wrote the Board of Supervisors in a June 15 e-mail. He noted three op-ed pieces, published in the June 14 Free Lance-Star's Viewpoints section, recounting how preservationists and Wal-Mart clashed in 1996 when the retailer planned to build a store at George Washington's boyhood home in Stafford County. The retailer eventually built on another site about a mile east on State Route 3. "This is not the first time this area has had to deal with Wal-Mart and a proposed location in close proximity to a historical site," Rolfe wrote. " The conclusion in the Ferry Farm case is that you can create a 'win-win' situation and the Board of Supervisors can play a major role in making that happen." He noted two goals--that Orange enlarge and diversify its tax base, and not do anything that would "detract from the [Wilderness] battlefield as a tourism destination for our community." The crucial issue is the Wal-Mart Supercenter's location, Rolfe wrote, referring to public testimony before the county Planning Commission last month. By at least a 2-1 margin, most people who testified at the hearing opposed allowing Wal-Mart's 138,000-square-foot store at the site proposed by JDC Ventures of Vienna along Wilderness Run at the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. A majority of those who spoke were Orange residents. Last Thursday, the Planning Commission voted 5-4 to recommend JDC Ventures' proposal to the supervisors, with certain conditions. The board will make the final decision on the developer's request for a special-use permit.
Date published: 7/1/2009
Send it to King George
(posted by
Wasp52
, July 2, 2009 9:06 am)
so that we'll have something other than F00d(?) Lyings to shop at. Besides, nothing happened there, anyway, so it won't interfere with anything.
The County Administrator Office
(posted by
wedens
, July 1, 2009 7:34 pm)
serves the Citizens and the Board of Supervisors of Orange
County. I wonder whose pocketbook he is working out of when
he makes comments to the Media without first discussing with
his superiors and getting their approval to stir the pot.
land
(posted by
Opiniontoshare
, July 1, 2009 4:20 pm)
I don't know all the details here, but I'm just wondering - where is the "win" for the owners of the land that is already zoned commercial? When Wal-Mart decided not to build adjacent to Ferry Farm, George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation (I believe that is the name of the organization) stepped in and bought the original Wal-Mart site, providing compensation for the landowner.
this seems like ..
(posted by
marimbax
, July 1, 2009 1:11 pm)
a very viable solution, especially since getting a special use permit is about as lengthy and costly as rezoning a certain tract of land. Why is Walmart SOO set on this one property? It seems like Orange as whole would like Walmart there, just not on that specific land. The Supervisors need to address this issue, especially when it concerns not only the citizens of Orange but the people offering to sell their property for the development.
FYI - "downzoning" IS legal if done according to the Law
(posted by
larryg
, July 1, 2009 9:37 am)
It's been done before though I'm not advocating it - just
FYI.
and just because something is zoned commercial - does
not mean that there are unlimited "by-right" commercial
uses allowed either. That's why many counties ALSO
require a Special Use permit for uses that are more than
benign.
Now that they've got the WalMart-haters out of the equation
, they can focus on some realistic solutions.
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