Spotsylvania Developer To Donate 181 Acres
By Deborah Fitts
November

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. — In a turnaround that provided a pleasant surprise for officials at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, developers planning to build hundreds of homes near the Jackson Trail portion of the Chancellorsville battlefield have volunteered to donate nearly 200 acres of land to screen the development.

Diane Cox Basheer Properties of Vienna, Va., approached the park last May to outline their plans for 596 homes on 1492 acres. The tract borders the north side of Jackson Trail East for two and a half miles.

Acting Superintendent John Hennessy asked for a 100-yard buffer along the trail, and said he was surprised when “they came back with more than we asked for.”

Basheer is proposing to donate 181 acres, including the remains of mine pits associated with Catherine Furnace, a major park feature along Jackson Trail. Hennessy said the developer has assured him that “at no place will there be a house within a hundred yards” of the park.

“I don’t expect the subdivision to totally vanish on the landscape, but especially during summer it will be invisible, I hope,” he said.

Basheer filed a rezoning application with Spotsylvania County Sept. 27. Hennessy also called “huge” the developer’s offer to abandon all 11 potential accesses that the property had to the Jackson Trail. That means that the traffic generated by the new development, dubbed “Whitehall,” will not be dumped on the 9-mile gravel park road.

Basheer’s proposals stood in contrast to plans across the park on Route 3, where Dogwood Development Group wants to build “Chancellorsville,” a town-sized project that park officials and preservationists fear will overwhelm the battlefield. (See related story.)

Since Basheer’s 181 acres lie outside the park boundary, the nonprofit Central Virginia Battlefields Trust (CVBT) was asked to accept the land, which is valued at $2.9 million. Hennessy predicted that in a couple of years a “minor boundary adjustment” will bring the tract into the park.

CVBT President John Mitchell pressed the developer even further. He asked Basheer to donate $1000 per house lot, with the money to be used for preservation of Civil War sites and open space elsewhere in the county. Basheer agreed to donate $100 per lot, or nearly $60,000.
“Johnny has guts,” said Hennessy with a chuckle. “These people tell us they’re going to give us a couple of a million dollars’ worth of land, and he says, ‘Give us money too.’ Johnny’s breaking new ground here. Give him all the credit for that.”

Mitchell hailed Basheer’s willingness to donate the per-lot funds, and said he will press future developers for a $1000-per-lot donation. “My big thrill is to go forth with this model,” he said.
Regarding the project, Mitchell cautioned, “We’re not endorsing the project, but we’re very much pleased with the process.”

Dory Winkelman, vice president of land acquisition for Basheer, said “any good developer” will always take into account the neighbors’ concerns. “Either you work with the stakeholders or they fight with you. To ignore them is an invitation to trouble.”

Winkelman said that “from a very early point” Basheer, along with their partners in the Whitehall project, T&E Associates of Fairfax, “knew that the battlefield was to the east of us.”

They approached Hennessy and discussed the buffer, but decided to increase it when they realized the significance of Catherine Furnace and its associated mines on the property.
“We thought, wouldn’t it be great to incorporate these long-since dormant mines with the furnace?” Winkelman said. “That was how the buffer grew from 40 or 50 acres to 181.”

Hennessy said the donation of land will add significantly to the park’s holdings around Catherine Furnace, which began producing iron in 1836. The chimney stack of the furnace dominates a portion of the trail. Hennessy said there should also be evidence of numerous associated buildings that are known to have stood on the property that Basheer will give to CVBT.

The furnace operated for less than 10 years after it opened, but it resumed operations during the Civil War. Produc-tion ceased permanently when Union cavalry commander George Custer burned the works in 1864.

The gift will also double the preserved land at the Charles Wellford Farm, where the park currently owns about 20 acres. Hennessy noted that the sons of Wellford, who was an owner of the furnace, helped to guide Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson on his famous flank march May 2, 1863. The day-long, 12-mile march with 28,000 men along what is now Jackson Trail culminated in a Union rout and a Confederate victory at Chancellorsville.

The farm now comprises a small clearing where the Wellford house stood, about three-quarters of a mile west of the furnace. The park plans to install a tour stop and interpretive markers next year.