Development Threatens WIlderness

By Deborah Fitts

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Developers want to rezone 177 acres within the Wilderness unit of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park from agricultural to commercial, an eventuality that in the words of Park Superintendent Russ Smith “certainly would destroy what’s left of the historic wooded scene.”

Maryland-based partners Ken Dotson and Charles King III want to build “Wilderness Crossing,” a 400,000-square-foot shopping center with a supermarket and hotel. They are also advocating construction of a new four-lane highway to serve their project, cutting right through the battlefield.

“They want to make this the downtown for Orange County,” said Smith. “This is pretty blatant when they want to go commercial right within the boundary of the park.”

The 177 acres includes two tracts that Dotson and King recently purchased within the park boundary, fronting the north side of Route 20 (the historic Orange Turnpike) just west of the Route 3 intersection.

The two parcels lie on either side of a trenchline owned by the park. On the west side of the trench Dotson owns 70 acres, and on the east — only 100 feet across the trench — King owns 33 acres. King previously purchased two tracts following the trenchline northward all the way to Route 3, with King’s three parcels following the trenchline for three-quarters of a mile. The partners’ holdings between the two highways total 177 acres.

The pair recently applied to the Orange County Planning Commission for rezoning of the total acreage. Their paperwork included a statement that Wilderness Crossing would be “a destination for local citizens and tourists to eat, sleep, shop and be entertained in Orange County.”

Smith said the development project would be bad enough, but the developers are tying it to a proposal by the Virginia Department of Transportation to abandon the present two-lane Route 20 and build a new four-lane to the north. Part of the proposal by Dotson and King is to actually build segments of the road on their own property, even though they would dead-end at park-owned land.

Smith said by proposing to build parts of the new highway, “Their idea is to embarrass us into some action.” Orange County has long wished to expand Route 20 to four lanes in its present alignment, he noted, but “in several places we own right to the edge of the road, so we could prevent that.”

He expressed concern that many Orange County officials “have a pro-development reputation.” The Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the developers’ rezoning request in October.

Smith noted that nearby Spotsylvania County would like to see this area kept rural. And Orange County’s comprehensive plan calls for keeping this part of Orange rural, he said, “but the developers don’t quite see it that way. They’re trying to build a city right up against Spotsylvania County.”

Asked whether the park might ever seek to condemn the threatened land, Smith responded that the park has never undertaken an unfriendly condemnation. He also noted that the two King properties near Route 3, totaling 77 acres, may be added to the park only by donation, which was a special stipulation when the park boundary was expanded in the 1990s. That stipulation does not apply to the King and Dotson properties fronting Route 20, however.

“We’re not taking anything off the table,” Smith said.

The park is planning to hold an internal workshop in October to be conducted by NPS traffic engineers. They will assess the need for more traffic capacity on Route 20 and study options to meet future demand on the highway.

The park is authorized to hold 3,360 acres at the Wilderness. Of that, the park currently owns 2,788 acres.