'Chancellorsville' Opponents Buoyed By Board Appointment
By Deborah Fitts

SPOTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE, Va. - Preservationists hoping to block a new town-sized development on the Chancellorsville battlefield got some good news Jan. 14 when the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors appointed a key ally to a seat on the board.

Henry "Hap" Connors, a spokesman for the Coalition to Save Chancellorsville Battlefield and until two months ago spokesman for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, won unanimous appointment to the seven-member board. The board was filling a vacancy caused by a supervisor's resignation in November.

Jim Campi, spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), noted that in November the coalition succeeded in having another pro-preservation candidate elected to the board by Spotsylvania voters.

"This is the second pro-preservation candidate we've been able to get on the board in the last two-and-a-half months," he said. "It's quite extraordinary."

Connors, a Spotsylvania resident, was one of four candidates in the running. He and two others opposed the controversial development and one supported it. Connors was the most clearly allied with the Coalition.

Dogwood Development Group of Reston proposes to build "Chancellorsville," a community with nearly 2000 homes and 2 million square feet of shops, hotels and offices, on the 800-acre Mullins Farm tract adjacent to the Chancellorsville unit of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. Opponents say the project will destroy a portion of the battlefield and funnel tens of thousands of vehicles a day through the park, as well as burden the county with
demands for new services.

The supervisors' appointment of Connors coincided with a candlelight vigil sponsored by the Coalition outside the courthouse where the board meets. More than 200 attended the half-hourevent, despite biting cold.

"Local folks are so energized at this point," Campi said. Historian, reenactor and preservationist Brian Pohanka delivered the main pep talk to the crowd.

Kevin Leahy of Spotsylvania, a board member of the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, wryly recalled that developer Ray Smith Jr. had predicted that his project would create a sense of community. Indeed it had, Leahy said, but not quite the way Smith had intended.

The supervisors could vote as early as March whether to approve Smith's project.

The Coalition has also retained a law firm, Hogan & Hartson of Washington, which is working pro bono. "A lot of legal issues are popping up," Campi explained. "It's gotten to the stage where we need legal counsel."

Meanwhile, efforts continue to keep opposition forces engaged. Rappahannock Area Grassroots distributed green ribbons and postcards with which residents could express opposition to the development. And the Coalition is marketing a Coalition T-shirt inscribed "Don't Destroy America's Heritage."

Information on the T-shirt and Coalition activities is found on their Web site, www.chancellorsville.org.