Threat Of Motorcycle/ATV Course Causes Jitters At Manassas
By Deborah Fitts
November 2002

MANASSAS, Va. - A rumored plan to create a track for all-terrain vehicles next to Manassas National Battlefield Park has prompted cries of alarm from the park and local residents, and county officials were gearing up for legal action.

" It would be absolute devastation," said Superintendent Bob Sutton." I could literally look out my window and see it."

Centreville resident Sam Unuscavage recently began clear-cutting a 23 -acre tract of woods and bringing in truckloads of fill at the corner of Route 29 and Pageland Lane, adjacent to the park's administrative headquarters.

Sutton began getting anxious calls from neighbors and battlefield supporters when fliers started to appear at local bike shops promoting Unuscavage's "Redline MX and ATV Club" at the Route 29 site.

The fliers, with Unuscavage's name, detailed a year-round operation with three tracks for off-road motorcycles and ATVs, two tracks for grownups and one for children. Opening of the "club" was planned for Oct. 31 "or sooner." Unuscavage, 30, also reportedly addressed a local off-road group Sept. 10, describing the facility and the cost to join.

Sutton noted that the park has a living history camp and demonstrations during the summer at nearby Stuart's Hill. "You can imagine what it would be like to have living history going on with 80 motorcycles screaming past only a couple of hundred feet away," he said.

Officials at Prince William County reminded Unuscavage that the site was zoned for agriculture. At one point they temporarily shut him down, but relented when he told them he wasn't building a commercial facility.

Curt Spear, assistant county attorney, said Unuscavage has repeatedly asserted that he only intends to farm. "He sent us a note in writing to that effect," said Spear. But given the fliers, and a Web site also advertising the coming track, "We've had concerns about how truthful he's been with us."

On Oct. 1 the Prince William Board of Supervisors authorized the county attorney's office to seek a court injunction against Unuscavage. At presstime, Spear said his office would meet with him one more time "and see if we can come to agreement" on his plans.

Unuscavage was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, "It's my land for my personal use, for me and my friends' personal use. We're going to do whatever I feel like doing."

As for those expressing concern, he said, "They need to mind their own business."

Unuscavage's attorney, Norbert Beville, dismissed the notion of a commercial track. "My client plans to farm and a place to ride his motorcycle, he and his friends," Beville said. Asked whether money would change hands, he replied, "Absolutely not."

Asked about the fliers and Web site, Beville said that Unuscavage" doesn't know where they came from. He has no association with them."

John McAnaw, president of the Bull Run Civil War Round Table, said it was "disgraceful" and "unbelievable" that Unuscavage had gotten as far as he had. McAnaw noted that renowned battlefield preservationist Annie Snyder, who died last summer, lived on Pageland Lane. "Annie
would have been aware of this long before anybody else," he said. "If she were alive I wonder whether things would be as they are."

Assistant County Attorney Spear noted that Prince William zoning allows for a commercial recreational facility in the agricultural zone, but only if the landowner convinces the supervisors to give him a special permit. In view of the proximity of the park, and since the county's comprehensive plan calls for "rural preservation" in that area, approval of such a facility seemed unlikely, Spear suggested.

According to Spear, the Route 29 property was purchased less than two years ago by a limited liability company, of which Unuscavage is a member.

Sutton said no battle action occurred on the property, although there were troop movements associated with the battle of Second Manassas.

But he said there was a small log cabin there, now "long gone," where it is believed that Robert E. Lee stayed during the battle. Although wooded in recent years, the property was mostly open at the time of the war, Sutton said. By early October he estimated that Unuscavage had cleared about 10 acres.