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PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES of the hot debate over the proposed Town of Chancellorsville now have more than a month to cool off.
The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors has decided to wait until early next year before talking about the fate of the development, which would cover almost 800 acres just west of Chancellorsville Elementary School and on the north side of State Route 3.
Who knows, with a little luck and a lot of effort in coming months, a satisfactory compromise could be worked out by the developer, land-owner, slow-growth advocates, public officials, historic preservationists, National Park Service officials and concerned taxpayers.
At a public hearing held early this month by the Planning Commission, citizens voiced opinions that crackled like kindling in a campfire. Then, implausibly, gasoline was thrown on that fire by commission members--who are appointed by supervisors from each of the voting districts, and who act only in an advisory capacity. With a quick, 5-2 vote the commission recommended that the board grant the rezoning requested by the Dogwood Development Group.
No one expected the commission to vote that night. When they did, it appeared to many opponents that the fix was in--that the Board of Supervisors would hold a required public hearing in early December and then rush to embrace the company's request to rezone the 800 acres for a "new town" that would include 1,995 homes and up to 2.2 million square feet of stores and offices.
Subsequently, a more deliberate course of events was set by Courtland District Supervisor Jerry Marcus, who will leave his judicially appointed post within the next few weeks. Marcus has spent the past year on the Board of Supervisors, filling in for Mark Cole, who was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
On Nov. 5, Courtland District voters elected Bob Hagan to a four-year term that starts in January.
Marcus said--and Board Chairman Ben Pitts agreed--that the proper thing would be to let Hagan participate in the discussion and help make the decision. Pitts canceled a public hearing set for early December. No new date has been announced.
A few weeks ago, as several hundred people tried to squeeze into the room for the Planning Commission's hearing, I talked with Sandy Rives, the superintendent of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Park.
"Everybody has to lower the volume of the argument," Rives said. "Everybody has to sit down and talk."
What Rives specifically wants to discuss is how to allow development without harming the experience of the people who visit Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, with its the 1,600 acres on four battlefields.
"There is a property owner who wants to make money. Is there a way to do that and still protect the battlefields?"
Rives will keep trying "to see if something can be worked out here." The situation, however, will be "extremely difficult to resolve."
"After 30 years in the Park Service, and having worked here with a lot of land-use issues, this is the most complicated I've experienced."
It is not Rives' intention to acquire the 200 to 300 acres that battlefield preservationists in the private sector contend must be saved. The first day of fighting of the three-day Battle of Chancellorsville occurred on that land on May 1, 1863.
The Civil War Preservation Trust, a national group based in Hagerstown, Md., would like to acquire that portion of the farm. The organization's president, James Lighthizer, recently told me the trust might be willing to offer $7 million to $10 million for that battlefield--two or three times more than what Mullins paid for the entire farm.
The preservationists' cause got a boost last week when the Senate passed the American Battlefields Protection Act of 2002, which would authorize federal matching funds of $10 million a year in each of the next five years to acquire Civil War battlefields. The House of Representatives has passed a similar bill, and President Bush is expected to sign such legislation when it comes before him.
Jim Campi of the Civil War Preservation Trust says his group hopes it can use some of that federal money to buy a portion of the Mullins property.
A sticking point is that the land preservationists want is close to State Route 3, which makes it the most valuable for commercial development, according to Ray Smith Jr., president of Dogwood.
Smith, whose option on the 800-acre tract expires April 1, has said he isn't interested in carving that prime acreage out of his plan.
The 800 acres is owned by local resident John T. Mullins. The existing zoning allows him to build 225 homes on large lots, as well as stores and offices on 55 acres.
If Smith's rezoning request is turned down by the Board of Supervisors, it can be assumed Mullins will be approached by the Civil War Preservation Trust and a local group, the Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.
Mullins sometimes is portrayed as a bad guy who doesn't care about hallowed ground. When ABC News televised a story about the fight going on in Spotsylvania, Mullins got only a few seconds on camera. He was quoted as saying opponents are "meddlin'."
Conversely, some backers of the development say opponents are obstructionists.
No compromise will be found if people on each side of the line of battle see themselves as the good guys and their opponents as the enemy.
LARRY EVANS can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; by fax at 373-8455; by phone at 374-5409; or by e-mail at levans@freelancestar.com.