Preservationists Try Again To Stop Walmart At The Wilderness
The news conference at Ellwood Manor on the Wilderness Battlefield took place on May 4 – one day short of being 145 years to the day of the bloody battle which marked Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s first encounter with a Union army led by Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Some 100,000 Union and 60,000 Confederate troops fought at the Wilderness. Poe observed that those 160,000 men in that one Civil War battle equal the total number of American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan today. Hosted by nine preservation groups united as the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, the press conference commemorated the battle and reminded the public of the danger to the preservation of that battlefield posed by the retail giant Walmart’s proposed 138,229-square-foot store. The store would be on land at the right flank of the Union Sixth Corps (Sedgwick’s) at the end of the second day of the battle. “We welcome Walmart to Orange County – don’t get me wrong, we’re glad to have them – just not at the proposed site where they are now,” said Craig Rains, spokesman for the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and master-of-ceremonies for the news conference. “We encourage Walmart to move its Supercenter up Route 3 away from the entrance to the Wilderness Battlefield.” “The question for Walmart, one of the world’s most successful corporations, is whether they need a fifth Walmart within 20 miles to be sited on this ‘cathedral of suffering,’” said Vermont Congressman Peter Welch. “The deadliest day in the history of the state of Vermont was here,” he said. Before the press conference Welch and Poe visited a monument to the 1,234 Vermonters who died in the two-day fight at the Wilderness. Texans in the Army of Northern Virginia fought the Vermonters from the Army of the Potomac. Poe said he and Welch don’t agree on many political issues. “One thing we both agree on,” he stressed, “is that this battlefield will be preserved.” Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall was on hand as well, and offered “whatever I can do to help.” Duvall, who lives on a farm in the small town of The Plains in Fauquier County, Va. claims to be a descendant of Robert E. Lee and played the Southern icon in the 2003 film “Gods and Generals.” “I believe in capitalism, but I believe in capitalism coupled with sensitivity,” Duvall said. “Sensitivity towards historical events and the feelings of the people of this whole area.” He said he would like to help by “graciously chasing out Walmart” from the Wilderness site, which drew the laughter and applause of the crowd. Because the proposed store size exceeds 60,000 square feet, the Walmart proposal must receive a special use permit that requires Orange County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors approval. Orange County Director of Community Development David B. Grover, in a May 6 report to the Planning Commission, recommended that Walmart be given a special use permit for the Wilderness Battlefield location. Grover also noted the application “does not include any requests for waivers or exceptions to Orange County Code requirements.” The land has been zoned for commercial use since 1973. The building’s large size triggered the need for a special use permit. The Planning Commission was scheduled to hold a public hearing about the permit on May 21. If approved, the final step would be a vote by the five-member Orange County Board of Supervisors. It has been widely reported that three of the supervisors support the Walmart proposal. In April the supervisors rejected a second proposal by the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition to do a joint planning study of the Route 3 area north of the battlefield.
The King family, which owns more than 2,000 acres in the area, and the coalition asked the county and Walmart to discuss land-use planning with them, both stewardship of the battlefield and economic development.
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