(Feb/Mar 2007) ORANGE COUNTY, Va. - A proposal to build a four-lane highway through the Wilderness battlefield has been ditched by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The board voted unanimously Jan. 9 to accept a plan for the State Route 20 corridor that would "discourage development that would necessitate construction of a four-lane highway over any portion of the route in Orange County."

"It's time to accept the reality that Route 20 is never going to be four-laned through the battlefield," board Chairman Mark Johnson was quoted by the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. "It's not going to happen."

Opposing the four-lane at the board's public hearing were representatives of the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and the Piedmont Environmental Council, as well as local preservationists.

The board's action followed in the wake of the Planning Commission's recommendation to scotch the four-lane plan. The commission wrote in a report that the earlier corridor study proposing the four-lane "did not seriously explore options other than realigning Route 20 through one of the most significant historical resources in the county."

CWPT spokesman Jim Campi noted that the four-lane proposal had been propelled by developers' hopes of accessing major tracts of undeveloped land. The board's action "certainly dampens the prospects for development there," Campi said. "This isn't the end, but it's certainly going to be easier to protect those acres."

But a more preservation-minded board was elected, ultimately leading to the Jan. 9 decision.

Campi hailed the "very proactive" stance of Russ Smith, superintendent at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, who had also strongly opposed widening or realigning the road through the battlefield. Still, the victory could be fleeting if preservationists don't continue to press their case, Canpi said.

"There's a lot of work to be done at the Wilderness battlefield in the next few years, or this road issue is going to pop up again," he warned.

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