Huge Development Proposed At Chancellorsville
By Deborah Fitts –
August 2002

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — A "new city" with thousands of homes and acres of commercial development is being proposed at Chancellorsville battlefield.

"I don't think there's ever been a project in the park's history that presents such a threat all in one chunk," said John Hennessy, acting superintendent at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. "No matter where you are in the park there will be an impact. It will be disastrous."

The proposal, by Reston, Va.,-based Dogwood Development Group, calls for 2350 homes and 2 million to 3 mil-lion square feet of office and retail space, generating 70,000 vehicle trips a day. The 771-acre tract, currently rolling farmland, is located 60 yards across Route 3 from McLaws Drive and the park's Chancellorsville unit.

Dogwood filed an application June 21 asking Spotsylvania County for a rezoning of the property to allow the pro-ject. Dogwood President Ray Smith Jr. envisioned the development, to be called "Chancellorsville," as "a real town," with homes, 7000 jobs, and as many as 15 restaurants, generating $11 million annually in net benefit to the county.

The projected new vehicle trips will nearly triple the current flow. Ninety-five percent of park visitors will "pass through this new city" on their way to the battlefield, Hennessy said, dramatically altering their appreciation of one of the most significant battles of the Civil War.
He warned that the development would inevitably lead to calls for widening Route 3's present four lanes, to six or eight. "We are not yielding land to expand roads that will rip out the heart of the park," Hennessy vowed.

The Dogwood tract, with a mile of frontage on the highway, comprises virtually all of what remains of the first day's battlefield at Chancellorsville, according to Hennessy. The park boundary includes land fought over on May 2 and 3, 1863, but none from May 1.

Dogwood is proposing to set aside 34 acres for "Battlefield Park," plus land along Route 3 for a buffer. But Hennessy said the measure "doesn't begin to address the impact on the park" by the development.

Jim Campi, spokesman for the Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust, called the 34-acre offer "ludicrous."

The May 1 battleground comprises 300 to 400 acres on Dogwood's property, he said, not including a protective viewshed. Meanwhile, the impact on the neighboring federal park, where visitors are already endangered by passing traffic when they stop at interpretive waysides, may be such that no one will want to come any more, Campi warned. The Dogwood project, as envisioned, would sound the park's "death knell," he said.

Campi said the Trust would prefer to work with Dogwood in a deal similar to Bristoe Station, where a developer recently agreed to preserve a significant portion of the battlefield in return for the Trust's support for residential development. But if no such deal is possible, "We're going for broke" and opposing Dogwood all the way, Campi said.

He said the Trust would work to form a coalition of national and local groups "to fight this and come up with concrete solutions." "Most of the county looks at Chancellorsville as a local issue," Campi said. "It's not. It's a national issue. It's one of the most significant Civil War battlefields and it needs to be considered that way."

The proposal raised anew the specter of a proposed Fredericksburg bypass, the Outer Connector, which battlefield supporters fear will harm the park's setting.

Also joining the fray was the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation, which in 1998 named Chancellorsville one of the country's 11 most endangered historic sites.

In early July, National Trust President Richard Moe noted the significance of the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, where Confederate commanders Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson devised a brilliant flank march that caught the Federals by surprise. The triumph was clouded by the mortal wounding of Jackson as he reconnoitered for advantage at dusk just hours after his assault.

"Chancellorsville encompassed some of the boldest strategy of the Civil War and resulted in more than 30,000 casualties," Moe said. "This so-called new historic town and the fledgling Outer Connector superhighway only add to the unchecked sprawl in that area and could very well pave over much of this historic national landmark where a chapter of America's story was written."

Hap Connors, spokesman for the National Trust, blamed pro-development government for the region's unchecked growth. "That whole area is a poster child for bad development, bad government, bad planning and greed," said Connors, "all of which adds up to dumb growth."
Meanwhile, the Fredericksburg-based Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) is weighing in with a preservation proposal. Mike Stevens, a member of CVBT's board of directors, said the nonprofit hopes "to carve out" 300 acres of the May 1 battlefield and purchase it from Dogwood. "That would be an accomplishment, and worthy of the people who died on this ground," Stevens said.

Dogwood's 34-acre offer was "almost insulting." "Obviously we want to save as much of the ground as possible, but we're into non-confrontation" and therefore will likely not fight Dogwood, Stevens said. He added, speaking of Dogwood's Smith, "He professes to be interested in history and heritage, and hopefully that's a start. You have to be hopeful."

A boundary adjustment was made to the park in 1999, adding 2200 acres to its four battlefield units. At the time, Hennessy said, political realities dictated that the park could preserve either Jackson's famous flank attack at Chancellorsville or the ground of the first day's fighting, but not both. The flank attack won out.

The Chancellorsville unit comprises 1500 acres. Visitation to Chancellorsville totals a quarter of a million people annually. Hennessy said Dogwood's proposal throws into relief the failure up to now by the county and the park to come to grips with protecting the park's battlefields against the recent onslaught of development.

The "silver lining" here, he suggested, is that the proposal may prove a catalyst to bring the park and the local community together for long-range planning, including bypassing traffic away from the park.

"We haven't taken the steps necessary to protect the park against developments like this, or the cumulative effect of a dozen smaller ones," he said. "The question is whether juxtaposing a city and a national park is good policy. Our hope is that the community values the park enough that they will pause and consider the impact of this development on a national treasure."

Hennessy added, "We own the place, but the community owns the sense of place" — and they have the power to preserve or destroy it. "Without that planning, Chancellorsville is doomed to ruin."

Spotsylvania County planning officials are not expected to address the proposal before August at the earliest.