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Head of nation's biggest preservation organization comes out against Wal-Mart proposal in Orange County Date published: 12/25/2008
BY CLINT SCHEMMER Richard Moe just waded into the Wilderness Wal-Mart controversy. Moe, president of America's largest preservation organization, has come out guns blazing against the retailer's proposed big-box retail center and the adjacent Wilderness Crossing mixed-use development near the Civil War battlefield in eastern Orange County. In his blog at preserva tionnation.org and in a Sunday op-ed piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's leader draws attention to what he calls "an issue that should concern all Virginians." Moe decries "commercial real estate speculators now pressuring elected officials in rural Orange County to approve plans for a bland but mammoth 145,000-square-foot Wal-Mart, a sea of parking, and a 900-acre business park and retail center with three more big-box stores. "This cookie-cutter behemoth will sit just one-quarter mile from the main entrance to a unique treasure, the Wilderness battlefield," he wrote. " The proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter would severely degrade its historic wooded setting, drastically increase traffic through the heart of the national park, and promote additional commercial development." Moe's comments are the first public remarks by a National Trust official on the issue, although the trust has for months been a member of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition, the umbrella group leading opposition to major development at the gateway to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Moe, the trust's chief since 1993, is a veteran of many preservation efforts, including a hard-fought Virginia campaign that garnered international attention. In that mid-1990s battle, Moe and his coalition partners eventually persuaded The Walt Disney Co. not to build its Disney's America theme park near Haymarket in western Prince William County. More recently, he worked with philanthropist Paul Mellon and his estate to fund a $24 million restoration of Montpelier, President Madison's estate in Orange County. Earlier this year, Moe opened the newly restored Lincoln's Cottage in Washington, the summer home of the late president and his family. CONCERN ABOUT TRAFFIC Moe expressed alarm that traffic congestion generated by Wilderness Crossing and Wal-Mart's retail center may prompt the Virginia Department of Transportation to dust off a previously rejected plan to widen State Route 20 from two to four lanes through the park.
Date published: 12/25/2008
Yes he was in the "hard fought campaign" to keep Disney out of Gainesville. And what happened? Gainesville ended up with over 6000 homes, poor roads with traffic jams, strip centers all over the place. Nice planning there, Mr. Moe. Won the county some great tax revenue .... NOT.
I suggest you brush up on your vocabulary if you wish to
denigrate other posters on this treasured website.
Expand your horizons and attempt to understand other
people's viewpoint. It will make you smarter and more
attractive to really gorgeous women....
Forget it Mr. Moe. The rednecks in Orange County will never get it.
perfect sense to those of us that have lived here our whole life. It's the freakin truth and these preservation groups refuse to let that come to light, that the strip malls and gas stations and a food joint are only a thousand feet away. They continue to look the other way on those but not the Walmart which will be a half mile to 3/4 a mile away, NOT a quarter mile or less. It will not be fronting Rt. 3. It will not bring out of control growth like Spotsy allowed, a plan is already in place to stop it.
these fools are talking about a commercial property 1/4 mile away from the entrance to
the battlefield on a main road that passes
by the property they are babbling about.
This should be a non issue, but because it
is Walmart the nutty professors will use whatever argument they can to make
trouble for this very large employer.
Nobody gives McDonalds any trouble when
they want to build across the street from a
national monument...and they pay
minimum wage too,
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