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Date published: 7/22/2003
WARRENTON--The recent defeat of the proposed Town of Chancel- lorsville Town of Chancellorsville gave some indication of the local opposition and national outrage over development of the Mullins farm portion of the Chancellorsville battlefield. Mr. Mullins has turned a deaf ear to any reasonable offer for the purchase and protection of the property, instead making it well known that he intends to proceed with the by-right development of a 273-acre portion of that property. To proceed as planned, he needs only an Army Corps of Engineers permit for the crossing of six streams that would be disturbed during development. This leaves the Army Corps' permitting process as the only avenue for public comment regarding the complete denigration of a treasured piece of our collective national history. Unfortunately, it appears that the Army Corps seems to have followed Mr. Mullins' lead in turning a blind eye on the destruction of hallowed ground, and has terminated consultations with interested parties that may have led to an agreeable compromise. The historic value of the 790-acre Mullins farm is immeasurable. Almost the entire 273-acre parcel known as the Ashley-Orrock tract lies within the county's Chancellorsville Battlefield Historic District. Due to its role in the Chancellorsville campaign and its importance as a contributing property to the Historic District, the site is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. If allowed to continue on its present course, the Army Corps will permit these stream crossings, beginning the piecemeal development of the entire 790 acres of the Mullins farm--forever altering this historic landscape and destroying undocumented historic resources in the process. The Army Corps has insisted on a narrowly defined permit area of the six stream crossings that are necessary for the development to take place within the Ashley-Orrock Tract. By limiting the scope in this manner, the agency is ignoring the federal Historic Preservation Act's requirements of a broader view of the permit area when historic resources are concerned.
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