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Supervisors accept funds to create a guide for development around Chancellorsville. Date published: 8/30/2005
By NATASHA ALTAMIRANO The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors last week unanimously voted to accept a National Park Service grant to help preserve the Chancellorsville battlefield. The park service has earmarked $46,500 from its American Battlefield Protection Program Fund for the county's 18-month plan to guide development around the battlefield area. The county is one of 12 recipients of ABPP grants totaling $350,854. Board Chairman Bob Hagan said it's important to preserve battlefields and consider land use in surrounding areas. "This grant's going to give us the opportunity to create the kind of gateway that will be pleasing to visitors and enticing to tourists," Hagan said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "If you had the world's biggest car wash next to the battlefields, it might not be so enticing. So you want to have some kind of transition from a heavily industrial or heavily commercial area to a preserved battlefield--that's one of the things I'm hoping we'll get out of this grant." Supervisors have always expressed support for battlefield protection, county planner Brenda Schulte said. "It's a significant resource for the county," Schulte said. "It's what defines us as a community--it's a part of our history." The money will be used to hire a consultant to study transportation and development issues around the site. The consultant also will hold community meetings for public input on future development. "We don't have a specific land-use plan for that area--that's what we're hoping to accomplish with this," Schulte said. The Planning Department will cover other expenses associated with the plan. "It makes your grant more competitive if you show how serious you are and are willing to take on some expenses," Schulte said. Lawmakers and local preservation groups wrote recommendations on behalf of the planning department when planners submitted the grant application earlier in the year, she said. "We work very closely with the American Battlefield Protection Program on grants similar to this and we're very excited that they're going to be involved in giving the county money to do this project," Civil War Preservation Trust spokesman Jim Campi said. "I think the study of historic lands around Chancellorsville battlefields is very important and we're happy to see the county becoming so actively engaged in the process." To reach NATASHA ALTAMIRANO:
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