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Orange supervisors try to get Wal-Mart permit back on track
Date published: 7/29/2009
BY ROBIN KNEPPER
After canceling Monday night's public hearing on a proposal to build a Wal-Mart near the Wilderness Battlefield, Orange County officials have been wrestling with how to put the controversial project back on track. Last night the Board of Supervisors agreed to reschedule its public hearing for Monday, Aug. 24, at the Orange County High School at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than usual. The supervisors could vote on Wal-Mart's special-use permit application that night, if time permits, or vote the next night at their regularly scheduled meeting. But these plans depend on the county Planning Commission rescheduling and completing its public hearing and making a recommendation to the supervisors before Aug. 24. The Planning Commission is holding a special meeting tomorrow night to consider this. Because of the legal requirements for advertising public hearings (once a week for two consecutive weeks) the earliest the Planning Commission could hold its public hearing would be at its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Aug. 20. The Board of Supervisors can't hold its public hearing until the Planning Commission meets and votes, but it can advertise beforehand. "The Board of Supervisors can ask the Planning Commission to vote," said County Attorney Sharon Pandak, "but can't require it." Wal-Mart is proposing a 138,000-square-foot supercenter on a 51.6-acre tract a quarter-mile north of the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20. But the public hearing Monday was canceled after Wal-Mart personnel discovered that the weekly newspaper in Orange County had failed to publish the second of two legally required notices advertising the May 21 public hearing before the county Planning Commission. Acting County Administrator Julie Jordan said that "out of an abundance of caution," both the public hearings before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors would be rescheduled. The Planning Commission last month voted 5-4 to recommend approval of a special-use permit for the store and accompanying retail center. Preservation groups have consistently opposed the location of the project, saying the supercenter and traffic it would bring would desecrate the battlefield.
For all those people who took time off of work or away from their families or simply out of their lives to come to this hearing and then didn't get to participate. I bet that contrary to Ms. Knepper's "majority" who support Wal-Mart, the numbers would have been just like the planning commission -- 2-to-1 with folks asking for a compromise at another site in the county.
You all are getting your blood pressure up for nothing. They are going to do what they want to do anyways.So who cares! All I can say is that I am glad that I moved away from there.
is bigger than Orange County and bigger than Virginia. These battlefields where men fought and died are national treasures that must be protected. Wal-Mart should be embarrassed and ashamed.
I would do a lot of fact cheking before I post anything. NavyOrchid stills suggests that the landowner has offered alternative land. This is categorically untrue. Two neighboring landowners have offered land, but not the 3&20 Partnership, which owns the land, and which, as near as I can tell, owns no other nearby land.
No one is saying that it is being built ON the battlefield....the complaint is that it is TOO CLOSE to the battlefield. If you are going to type in all caps, make sure you have a valid argument!
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