A lawsuit aimed at stopping construction of a Walmart-anchored retail center in the vicinity of the Wilderness battlefield can go to trial, a judge ruled today.
Daniel R. Bouton, presiding judge of Orange County’s Circuit Court, ruled that the plaintiffs fighting the proposed development—which has generated national controversy for more than a year—have legal standing to proceed with their challenge.
The court rejected the Orange Board of Supervisors’ request that the lawsuit be dismissed.
Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, a local preservation group, and six Orange County and Spotsylvania County residents who live within three miles or less of the site may proceed with suing the county over the project, it ruled.
But Judge Bouton ruled that another plaintiff, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, does not have legal standing.
In ruling for the local residents, he cited another national chain: Starbucks.
Residents would have a tough time proving one of the coffee chain’s stores several miles away would disrupt their lives, Bouton wrote. But the judge said the construction of a 138,000-square-foot Walmart was another matter. He said residents had legitimate fears about increased traffic and litter.
“Thus, the use of land by an establishment like Walmart could have an adverse and immediate impact on far more property owners than would a Starbucks,” Bouton wrote.
Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield maintains a historic property on the battlefield, Ellwood Manor, a former plantation house that headquartered Union generals and served as a hospital for Confederate troops. It is less than a mile from the Walmart site.
Bouton said the group would be “significantly affected” by the county’s approval of the retail center.
The lawsuit contests the Orange supervisors’ decision to allow a 240,000-square-foot retail development at State Routes 3 and 20, a cannon-shot from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
A 138,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter would anchor the retail center on 51.5 acres near the Wilderness Corner intersection, just north of a 7-Eleven and a small strip shopping center on the north side of Route 3.
More than 250 historians, along with celebrities such as actors Robert Duvall and Richard Dreyfuss and filmmaker Ken Burns, have taken a stand against the retail project and its impact on the battlefield.
Walmart’s Supercenter would be outside the limits of the national park but within an area where troops prepared for battle, marched, and died of their wounds.
The plaintiffs argued that the county board ignored or rejected the assistance of historians and other preservation experts when it acted. On Aug. 25, the supervisors granted the special-use permit needed for the “big-box” retail project.
The plaintiffs filed suit on Sept. 23. Their legal challenge contends the board’s 4-1 decision was “flawed in numerous respects.” It claims that supervisors “brushed aside” mounting concerns about the negative impacts the store would have on the Civil War battlefield and the national park.
At the time, Walmart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said its Orange proposal “not only met but exceeded the guidelines set by the county.”
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Union counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, first met in battle at the Wilderness. Some 180,000 soldiers fought and 26,000 were killed or injured there 146 years ago next month.
The battle began Grant’s relentless Overland Campaign against Lee, which ended with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox 11 months later.
The Friends of Wilderness Battlefield and the National Trust are among eight local, state and national groups that formed the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition to try to halt the retail development, which was announced in August 2008.
Six private citizens are plaintiffs: Curtis Abel, Sheila Clark, Dwight L. Mottet and Craig Rains, all residents of Lake of the Woods in Orange County; Susan Caton, owner of Susan’s Flowers Etc. off Route 3 in Locust Grove; and Dale Brown, who lives in Spotsylvania County.
Brown lives within sight of the tract where Walmart, JDC Ventures of Vienna and 3 & 20 Limited Partnership of Burke plan the development.
Walmart supporters said the Supercenter will bring needed jobs and tax revenue to the rural county. They have noted that the site is outside the congressionally mandated boundary of the national park, and that convenience stores, a fast-food restaurant and other commercial enterprises already exist at the Routes 3/20 crossroads.
The plaintiffs claim the county accepted environmental and fiscal impact studies from Walmart that did not assess the harm a Supercenter would do to local merchants and the national park.
Critics say they aren’t opposed to a Walmart in Orange County, “just one that falls within the battlefield or in such close proximity to the national park,” as Rob Nieweg, director of the Natioal Trust’s Southern Field Office, put it.
Walmart officials have said the site is the only one in the area that meets their criteria for zoning, size and road access. Work has not yet begun on the store.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the supervisors’ vote “unlawful and invalid” and to block further county action on the developers’ site plan.
In its response last fall, the Orange County board contended that the residents and preservation groups had no legal standing in the dispute.
Walmart said then that the legal challenge had “no merit or basis in fact.”
Arnold & Porter, a powerhouse Washington law firm, is representing the plaintiffs. It took the case on a pro bono basis, volunteering its services.
National Trust president Richard Moe hailed the court’s decision.
“While the National Trust will not serve as a plaintiff in this lawsuit, we are very pleased that local Orange County residents and Friends of Wilderness Battlefield will be able to challenge this Walmart project that threatens a historic place they care about,” Moe said. “Nothing is more central to our mission than defending the rights of citizens to have such a day in court.”
--The Associated Press contributed to this report.