Final hearing set for Monday in Orange County

The Orange County Board of Supervisors will hold its final public hearing on a proposed Walmart on Monday at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the county high school.

The board probably will decide on an application for a special-use permit to allow construction of the 138,000-square-foot store, though a vote could be pushed back to Tuesday if the hearing goes late.

“I don’t think anyone wants to extend this any more than it needs to be,” said District 2 Supervisor Zack Burkett.

He said he expects about 60 speakers.

“I’d like a repeat of [Thursday] night,” he said, referring to Thursday’s Planning Commission hearing, during which 33 people spoke. That well-mannered affair lasted less than two hours before the commissioners began debating whether to vote. An earlier public hearing had 80 speakers.

The commission, minus two members, did vote, splitting 4-4 on a request to grant a special-use permit for the store. The group had earlier approved the application on a 5-4 vote, but that vote was vacated when it was discovered that the meeting was held without proper public notice. Its recommendations, though, are nonbinding, so the latest vote was not a deal-killer. The Board of Supervisors has the power to grant or deny such permits.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wants to build a store near the intersection of state Routes 3 and 20 in eastern Orange County. The site is across the street from a sign welcoming visitors to the Wilderness, a Civil War battlefield where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant squared off for the first time near the end of the war. Their decisions precipitated two days of fighting that left more than 25,000 men dead or wounded.

There’s some debate about the actual store site, with some historians and preservationists arguing that it was part of the battlefield. Others say it wasn’t.

The area has been zoned for commercial development since the 1970s, and there is already a scattering of stores there. But the size of the Walmart exceeds the maximum allowed, so a special-use permit is necessary.

If approved, the store could be open within a year, a Wal-Mart lawyer said.

Zachary Reid is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.