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Hundreds of people are expected tomorrow night when the Orange County Planning Commission holds a public hearing on a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter planned for land north of State Route 3 near the Wilderness Battlefield.
"I expect that this will be the largest public hearing ever held in Orange County," said County Administrator Bill Rolfe.
JDC Ventures is seeking
The balance of the 51.6-acre property, to the east and bordered by Wilderness Run, is largely in a flood plain and not proposed for development.
Historic preservationists oppose the plan, saying a Supercenter and the traffic it would bring would destroy the ambiance of the nearby Civil War battlefield park. They are urging Wal-Mart to find a new site farther from the battlefield where Union and Confederate forces suffered 29,000 casualties in May 1864.
Supporters note that the land has long been zoned for commercial development and that the area is already the site of a Sheetz service station, a McDonald's restaurant, a 7-Eleven and other retail stores. The new shopping center is expected to create 300 jobs and bring $500,000 a year in tax revenue to the county.
"There's always interest when Wal-Mart wants to come to a locality," Rolfe said, noting that some Orange residents simply don't like Wal-Mart. "The proximity to Wilderness Battlefield brings up other controversies and challenges."
County planning staffers have recommended approval of the special-use permit. Planning commissioners will make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors, which will make the final decision.
Planning Commission Chairman Will Likens said it's unlikely a vote will be taken tomorrow night. "It's not our style to listen to hundreds of people and then vote without taking the time to consider what they said," he said. "But we can't lock ourselves in by saying we wouldn't vote that night."
Three of the five county supervisors, Teel Goodwin, Zack Burkett and Mark Johnson, have said they support Wal-Mart coming to Orange. Supervisor Teri Pace has said she is opposed. Board Chairman Lee Frame has said he will not decide until after the matter comes before supervisors.
"We expect a lot of anti-Wal-Mart people to show up at the public hearing," Frame said. "My experience in talking to people locally is that they're a little more pro-Wal-Mart, but those against it express strong feelings about it and send lots of e-mails and write letters to the editor."
He said supervisors have received thousands of form-letter e-mails as part of a campaign by the Civil War Preservation Trust. Frame said he complained and now the CWPT is printing out the e-mails and mailing them to him.
"There were 96 in the last batch I got," Frame said. "Three were from Orange County and five from Virginia.
"A lot of the anti-Wal-Mart stuff has been coming on so strong it's raised the ire of Orange County citizens," Frame said. "A lot of the e-mails I get say to ignore the people from outside the county."
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net
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WHAT: Orange County Planning Commission public hearing on proposed Wilderness Wal-Mart
WHEN: 7 p.m. tomorrow, Prospect Heights Middle, 202 Dailey Drive, Orange. Building opens at 6 p.m. RULES: Speakers must sign up and will be called on in the order in which they signed up. They will have three minutes to speak. Commissioners will not answer questions or engage in conversation with speakers. ONLINE: Check out details at orangecountyva.gov, Wal-Mart's views at orange walmart.com and preservationists' views at civil war.org.
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