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Orange judge hears arguments in challenge of permit for Wilderness-area Walmart Date published: 2/4/2010
BY ROBIN KNEPPER An Orange County judge heard arguments yesterday in a lawsuit challenging a Walmart Supercenter in the Wilderness battlefield area, but did not immediately rule on whether to let the case proceed. Yesterday's three-hour hearing before Circuit Judge Daniel R. Bouton was on a response by Orange County to a lawsuit filed by two preservation groups and Bouton said he would consider the arguments made by both sides and read the "voluminous" papers they've filed before delivering his opinion. He asked the court reporter for a full transcript of the day's hearing in 10 days to two weeks. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, joined by the Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and six individual plaintiffs, filed suit against the Orange Board of Supervisors in September. They are asking the court to invalidate a special-use permit approved by supervisors that allows construction of a 138,000-square-foot Supercenter to anchor a retail development a quarter of a mile north of State Route 3, near the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. The plaintiffs, represented by Washington lawyer Robert Rosenbaum, claimed in their suit supervisors' approval of the permit failed to comply with the county's comprehensive plan. Their lawsuit also claims the county's zoning ordinance is invalid because it fails to follow state laws requiring such ordinances to protect historic sites, and that the Planning Commission made procedural errors in the course of three separate votes on the permit. Orange County Attorney Sharon Pandak said the plaintiffs do not have legal standing to challenge the board's action. She said that would require that they prove they would be particularly harmed by the decision. She said supervisors have full authority to make land-use decisions, and that merely disagreeing with such a decision doesn't provide a legal basis for overturning it. Rosenbaum countered that the complaint alleges that supervisors failed to take certain actions before voting on the permit, specifically considering the concerns and offers of help from then-Gov. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and preservation groups.
Since the Fredericksburg area already has several Wally Worlds, why don't the plaintiffs partition Fredericksburg to see if they can get their proposed water park. That area looks like a carnival now - Might as well make it pay off!
If that fact is some kind of reason for overturning the WalMart decision, next thing you know the preservationists et al will want to turn back a century's worth of development.
the statement applies to about 90% of Virginia, east of the mountains.
"The store would be outside the limits of the protected national military park, but within an area where troops prepared for battle, marched and died of their injuries.", apply to major percentages of land in Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg, and even Stafford?
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