Walmart in the Wilderness
For the last year and a half, an ordinary looking intersection (Routes 3 & 20) in Orange County, Virginia, has been the focus of an intense dispute, with a multi-national corporation and the local county government on one side and those who care about battlefield preservation on the other. The intersection hasn’t received this much attention since 1864. In that year this intersection was the nerve center of the Union army, as headquarters, hospital, and supply stations clustered here during the Battle of the Wilderness. From here, Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and George Gordon Meade directed their army against the forces of Gen. Robert E. Lee. The roads at this intersection served not only as the axis of advance for the Union right wing, but also provided the Northerners with a conduit of reinforcements and a vital link with the left wing of the army. The most recent dispute arose when Walmart proposed building a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter, plus at least two “junior big box” stores at the intersection. This project would have dwarfed existing commercial activity in the area. The National Park Service (NPS), which is responsible for the Wilderness Battlefield unit of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, has consistently objected to intense commercial development at this crossroads. The NPS is concerned not only because the park extends to this intersection, but also because the intersection itself serves as the primary gateway to the battlefield. It voiced these concerns repeatedly and most recently before this controversy during the county’s comprehensive planning process. The only result was a pledge by the county in the 2005 plan to prepare a battle preservation plan, a pledge that has gone unfulfilled. The 51.5 acres targeted by Walmart were zoned commercial in the 1970s. However, the county board of supervisors recently passed a “big box” ordinance requiring that any construction over 60,000 square feet require a special use permit. After a number of contentious hearings in 2009, the county finally approved the permit for the site in August. Subsequent to that action, a suit challenging the county’s action was filed in circuit court by the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and individual local residents. A judge heard arguments on the standing of the various litigants on Feb. 3. His decision is pending. Although the Walmart issue is still in doubt, it’s not too early to start to analyze why this collision of interests occurred in Orange County and how we should go forward. When one reporter naively speculated on why preservationists start battles with developers, I had to remind him that it’s not the battlefields that are moving toward the developers, but vice-versa. The battlefields in this area exist on the frontier of commercial and residential development in the Washington, D.C. exurbia. Like the Native Americans on the original American frontier, the battlefields are under constant pressure. A key difference is that there’s no question of their moving. Unfortunately, many local governments in formerly rural areas are ill-prepared to deal with preservation issues. Land rights are a cornerstone of local politics and anything that seems to impinge upon them is looked upon with suspicion. In Orange County, local government has traditionally viewed battlefield preservation as a federal responsibility, although private groups, such as the Civil War Preservation Trust and the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust, have been more and more involved in recent years. On the federal side, Congress never intended that the government would preserve the entire Wilderness Battlefield. In 1927 when the park was founded, the primary goal was to preserve lines of battle and provide access to the battlefields. It was assumed that land in the area would remain rural forever. Even today, the park only preserves 41 percent of the core battlefield where the most intense fighting took place and 14 percent of the greater battlefield which includes lines of advance, headquarters, hospitals, etc. Unfortunately, many people believe that the park boundaries and the battlefield boundaries are the same. With most of the battlefield outside the park boundaries and with no chance that it will all be acquired for preservation, it is clear that the Orange County community will have to be more involved in preserving the significant resources in its care. It is not a black and white issue anymore, with land either being entirely preserved or open for any type of development. There are areas where sensitive development can and should take place. However, we all need to work together. If nothing else, cooperation in preservation is in the county’s economic interest. As the 2005 Orange County Comprehensive Plan says, “Tourism is economic development.”
Russ Smith, a graduate of the University of Delaware, is a 37-year veteran of the National Park Service. He has been superintendent of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for the last six years.
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