BY ROBIN KNEPPER
Once again, residents will have the opportunity to tell the Orange County Planning Commission what they think of a proposal to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the Wilderness Battlefield area.
In a special called meeting last night, the commissioners took only five minutes to set Aug. 20 for a second public hearing on the matter. The move was prompted by the discovery this week that the first public hearing was not properly advertised.
The hearing will be held at Orange County High School and will start at 7 p.m.
At the urging of Chairman Will Likins, commissioners also set Aug. 21, the next night, as a meeting date, just in case "it's needed to discuss the Wal-Mart hearing."
"I'd be very surprised if we had half the crowd this time," Likins said, but he wanted cover all possibilities.
After the first public hearing on May 21, and two additional meetings at which commissioners closely questioned Wal-Mart officials on their plans, the planning panel voted 5-4 on June 25 to recommend that supervisors approve a special-use permit to build a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter a quarter-mile north of the intersection of State Routes 3 and 20.
The Board of Supervisors had scheduled a public hearing and possible vote on the permit for Monday night but canceled it midday after Wal-Mart personnel discovered that the weekly newspaper in the county had advertised the Planning Commission hearing only once. The law requires that public hearings be advertised twice in a two-week period preceding the meeting.
Although the Planning Commission took five weeks to vote on the Wal-Mart permit the first time around, supervisors say they hope commissioners can wrap up their part of the process in time for the board to hold its own public hearing Aug. 24.
Historic preservationists have mounted a national campaign against the Wal-Mart proposal, saying the store and traffic it would bring would desecrate the Civil War battlefield.
The store site is outside the congressionally mandated boundaries of the Fredericksburg Spotsylvania National Military Park, but in an area designated for study for possible historic significance.
Supporters, who include at least three of the five supervisors, note that it has long been zoned for commercial development and is near a large gas station, a fast-food store, a convenience store, a bank and other businesses.
Wal-Mart says the store would provide 622 jobs and $800,000 a year in tax revenue for the county once it is in operation.
Seventy-two people, two-thirds of them from Orange County, spoke at the first public hearing. The majority said they did not oppose a Wal-Mart in the county but wanted it farther from the Civil War battlefield.
Wal-Mart officials have consistently said no other location along the Route 3 corridor meets their criteria for commercial zoning, size, location and access.
Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net