Development Begins On Mullins Farm At Chancellorsville
By Deborah Fitts
July 2004 SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va.

An effort to preserve a piece of threatened land where part of the battle of Chancellorsville was fought has gone from the frying pan into the fire. Battlefield supporters defeated one developer's plan for a 2,000-home community, but now another developer has started carving a subdivision road in preparation for construction.

The property is the 781-acre Mullins Farm, a tract of rolling farmland on Route 3 adjoining the Chancellorsville unit of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. Homebuilding giant Toll Brothers says it will build 225 "luxury" homes on the land.

Bulldozers are carving roads into the property and Toll Brothers is already advertising the homes. Starting prices at "Chancellorsville Hunt" will be around $400,000, with the houses on average lot sizes of 3.5 acres.

Civil War Preservation Trust spokesman Jim Campi put a brave face on the latest developments. Campi spearheaded a coalition of preservation groups in a protracted and often-bitter grassroots campaign last year that defeated plans by another developer for the "Town of Chancellorsville."

"There are indications that they're interested in working out a compromise," Campi said of Toll Brothers. "But at what point a deal might be brokered, if one can be brokered, I can't say."

The Trust has identified about 300 acres of the Mullins Farm as core battlefield on May 1, 1863, the opening day of the battle. Campi said the work so far under way by Toll Brothers is at the north end of the property, which is "least historically significant."

Farm owner John Mullins has reportedly signed a contract to sell Toll Brothers 550 acres, with an additional 172 acres likely to follow. Not part of the deal are 55 acres zoned for commercial use. So far Toll Brothers has county approval for 30 house lots and is seeking a second round of 32 home sites. The lots are allowed under the current zoning.

Campi pointed to "the positive side," asserting that whatever may happen with Toll Brothers, "We've already accomplished a whole lot."

He cited last year's victory by the coalition, and also the successful blocking of a proposal for a Fredericksburg beltway that would have severely impacted the property and the nearby park.

And, thanks to changes on the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors that were championed by the coalition, "The county is working with us, not against us," Campi said, and supports battlefield preservation.

"The worst that Toll Brothers can do is build 225 homes on the boundary of the park," Campi said. "Obviously we'd like to save some of the land too, but we've accomplished a lot."

Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers has built extensively in Northern Virginia.