BY ROBIN KNEPPER
Gov. Tim Kaine and House Speaker Bill Howell have added their clout to the debate over a proposal to build a Wal-Mart in the Wilderness battlefield area.
In a letter Monday to Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Lee Frame, Kaine and Howell called the Civil War battlefield "supremely important."
They urged the board to work with Wal-Mart to "find an appropriate alternate site for the proposed retail center in the vicinity of the proposed site yet situated outside the boundaries of Wilderness Battlefield and out of view from the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park."
Wal-Mart wants to build a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter on part of a 51-acre, commercially zoned site at the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. Historic preservationists oppose the site, saying a Wal-Mart there would damage the Civil War battlefield.
Wal-Mart officials have said they investigated all other properties on the Route 3 corridor and the chosen site is the only one that meets their criteria for size, accessibility and commercial zoning.
The county Planning Commission has recommended approval of a special-use permit needed to build the store, and three of the five supervisors have voiced support for the plan.
In their letter, which was copied to other supervisors, Kaine and Howell acknowledged the county's authority to reject or deny the permit. But they offered to provide state help to the county and Wal-Mart if they choose to pursue another location.
"It's an issue between Wal-Mart and the localities. What the state can do is, they can offer some expertise and they can offer some negotiating help," said Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey.
"Battlefield preservation is important to the governor. So is business and jobs. What he wants to see is that this all works out so Wal-Mart can build without impacting the battlefield."
Supervisors met in closed session Tuesday night to discuss the letter but took no public action afterwards.
County Attorney Sharon Pandak said discussion of the letter was suitable for a closed session of the board because it came under the provision in state code that dealt with "assignment of a public officer." She would not identify what assignment was required of which public officer.
Frame said that he would talk to board members about the letter, but he was not sure the board would meet again before he replies.
"This was not something the board was expecting," he said. "I need to think about whether to do this before or after the public hearing."
The board has scheduled a July 27 public hearing on the special-use permit application. It will hold its regularly scheduled meeting the next night.
Many speakers at a public hearing before the Planning Commission in May urged the county to push for a new site for the store. But a majority of the supervisors have said that it's not the county's place to dictate land use to private property owners.
"The Democrats don't have much respect for property rights," Supervisor Zack Burkett said yesterday. "And the preservationists don't have much credibility."
Burkett said the Wal-Mart site "has been zoned commercial for 30 years, is not on the Wilderness battlefield and cannot be seen from the battlefield.
"I'm disappointed that [Kaine and Howell] would take their position without discussing it with the Orange County supervisors and getting all the details on the project," he said. "It looks like most of the letter came out of a preservationist group's press release."
Kaine is a Democrat; Howell is a Republican from Stafford County. While they have sparred on other issues, the two have worked together to preserve the state's historic resources.
Howell's wife, Cessie, was among the local leaders who fought a 1996 plan by Wal-Mart to build a store in southern Stafford County at George Washington's boyhood home. Eventually, the store site was bought by what is now the George Washington Foundation, and Wal-Mart built its store about a mile east on State Route 3.
Keith Morris, director of public affairs for Wal-Mart, said the company respects efforts by Kaine and Howell to balance economic growth and historic preservation. He said he believes the company has done that in its selection of a site.
In an e-mail to The Free Lance-Star, he said the land is zoned for commercial development and "more than 5,000 residential homes and other compatible commercial development are already built out dramatically closer to the preserved boundaries of the Wilderness Battlefield than our project.
"We wholeheartedly agree this project presents the unique opportunity to bring the interests of battlefield preservation and smart development effectively into balance, and that is precisely what we have accomplished with our current proposal," he wrote.
Supervisor Teri Pace, a critic of Wal-Mart's site selection, told The Associated Press it would be "disappointing to not accept such a generous offer from the state." She said it is an opportunity to protect history and "promote and enhance our future economic prosperity."
In a telephone interview from Atlanta, where he is chairing a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Howell said there is little he and Kaine can do if the Orange supervisors reject the idea of an alternate site.
"The governor and I both very clearly realize this is a local prerogative," Howell said. "We're not coming in and saying, 'You've got to do this or that.'"
But the speaker also noted, "Both of us, and I think we speak for large constituencies, feel very strongly about land preservation."
Staff writer Chelyen Davis
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net