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The Orange County supervisors should not have rejected the Wilderness Coalition's study proposal Date published: 4/21/2009
THOSE SHARP RETORTS heard The "target," of course, is the overall good of Orange County, their principle purpose. Charged with Chairman Lee Frame, in a letter to Jim Campi of the Civil War Preservation Trust, wrote that the supervisors don't reject the goals of a comprehensive planning project, but that they won't hold up Wal-Mart's pending application for that process. That's a classic "ready fire aim" view. Because once the big-box store is planted, others will sprout up, and the chance to "plan" obviated. As a witness, we call to the stand the Salem Church battlefield site--dwarfed now by commercial development and the attendant roads. Some of the Orange supervisors are miffed at the interest in the Wilderness Wal-Mart from outside the county, including a flood of e-mails from Civil War buffs and an unprecedented proclamation from the Vermont legislature. Apparently, parochialism isn't dead. True, Vermont lawmakers aren't going to pay for a new school in Orange, and many Civil War enthusiasts will never spend a tax penny in the county. But it's also true that attracting interest from around the nation could be a benefit via tourism. Establishing the county's reputation as a preservation-conscious historic destination could bring in outside dollars, maybe even increasing traffic at Montpelier. No county is an island. The Orange supervisors may hope to entice a few Spotsylvanians to their new Wal-Mart, and no one with an out-of-state license plate would be refused admittance to the place. So why shouldn't others weigh in on the county's plans? Rejecting the reasonable request of the Wilderness Coalition is foolish. Orange supervisors should rethink their position. The target of the public good still stands. Only they can hit it.
The Allies spent more than two years planning D-Day, considered contigencies and had their best minds working on it. Unfortunately, our best minds would rather calls names and declare "delaying tactic" than seriously consider alternatives or the implications of the mistake they are about to make.
....surrounded by homes and businesses.... there is no way that all of the historic land in the Fredericksburg Area could have
been saved.
I'm not advocating the wanton destruction and loss of historic land much less arguing against preservation but I would ask.. is
this a double standard in this circumstance when there is already a bunch of development in that area that is in between the
historic land and the proposed site?
Further - what exactly was proposed for the current COMP PLAN by activists?
How more planning could ever be bad... and since the battlefield is precious this analogy might work for you.... June 6, 1944 D day, you studied it in history class ...right? Well at some point Ike had to stop planning and taake action. What is to be accomplished by a study that everyone realizes is a delaying tactic and an attempt to stall in hopes Walmart cancels their plans.
...goes to the Orange County board. They seem determined to repeat the mistakes of Fairfax and other urban counties. And when the preservationists offer to rescue them from their stupidity, they slap them down with malice. The sprawl steamroller is coming our way, and the board is too busy bickering among themselves to stop it.
For those of you who live outside our county, or who recently moved here, several years ago the BOS and the Planning Comm. and the people of Orange county held many hearing's on the rivision of the county's comp. plan. The outcome was that the Rt. 3 corridor was perfect for commercial development. So why do anymore studies? Where were all these presevationist at when all the other development was done between the prposed WalMart and the battlefield?
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