Wilderness Wal-Mart: Preservation and Progress Can Coexist

One hundred fifty years ago, the soldiers fighting our Civil War demonstrated the timeless characteristics at the backbone of our nation -- a passion for individual liberty, and a drive to improve the world for future generations. They fought for many reasons, spilling blood for the vision of the future they felt was brightest.

Industriousness and entrepreneurial spirit are two of the most prized American qualities. They have contributed to the unprecedented success of Wal-Mart, whose tale is an unparalleled American success story.

My organization has no quarrel with Wal-Mart, nor does the coalition of preservation and conservation groups opposing a proposed supercenter on the Wilderness Battlefield. We have not entered the debate about the chain's business model or disputed its decision to build a store in Orange County. We simply object to the site chosen for the project.

IT IS A misconception that historic preservation means freezing a community in time, with no opportunity to evolve or grow. Similarly, it is equally false that sprawling big-box developments are the only viable economic driver for 21st-century communities. Seeking a sensible middle ground creates a dynamic and symbiotic relationship between the past and the future.

There are two keys to reaching this balance: long-term planning and flexibility, the very ideals being advocated by the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition. We have offered to finance a study investigating how to balance commercial development at the gateway to Orange County with historic and cultural resources, identifying sites where development would not infringe upon the battlefield. Doing so would add valuable insight to land-use decisions that will arise for many years to come, creating a guiding wisdom and uniformity of purpose that cannot be accomplished through piecemeal development. Sadly, this sincere and earnest offer has been repeatedly rebuffed.

The rigidity demonstrated in this situation by both Wal-Mart and some elected officials is selling Orange County short. Residents deserve the benefits of both Wal-Mart, with its new retail opportunities and expanded tax base, and the battlefield, with its tremendous capacity to generate heritage tourism. Accepting only one side of the equation when the opportunity exists to secure both is to settle for mediocrity and haphazard sprawl.

It is true that the property is not within the boundaries of the National Park. However, more than 15 years before Wal-Mart proposed a store in Orange County, a panel of the nation's top historians identified the land now eyed for big-box development as part of the Wilderness Battlefield. To suggest otherwise violates the incontrovertible historical record and the formal findings of federal and state agencies.

IN FACT, only one-fifth of the Wilderness Battlefield is preserved within Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Some land is already lost -- but we must resist the temptation use this to justify further short-sited development. Other areas, like that eyed by Wal-Mart, balance on the precipice: They are as-yet pristine, but extremely vulnerable.

What should become of such land? Purchasing it all for inclusion in the National Park System is both financially impossible and unnecessary. The Wilderness Battlefield Coalition readily admits that the planning process we have proposed could determine some land at the fringes of the national park -- areas of lesser historical significance, well-screened from vistas and popular destinations -- may be appropriate for development. This is not an empty promise; we have worked cooperatively with development firms at battlefields across the country, from Wilson's Creek, Mo., to Chancellorsville in neighboring Spotsylvania County.

Orange County should pursue land-use decisions made in the best interests of the community and its unique resources, rather than proposals made in a vacuum with only a single developer's goals in mind. We must seek to follow the vision outlined by Gov. Tim Kaine and Speaker William Howell in their July 13 letter to Orange County supervisors, encouraging them to find an alternate location and take advantage of this "unique opportunity to bring the interests of battlefield preservation and smart development effectively into balance."

MOVING away from piecemeal development to a system based on a long-term vision is certainly not easy, but striving to do so demonstrates other prized American values. We should be willing to push the boundaries of what was previously thought possible, and strive for the exceptional, instead of settling for the average.

Orange County, we are ready to pursue the exceptional. Will you join us?

James Lighthizer is president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, America's largest battlefield preservation organization and a member group in the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition. Contact him at .