G.E. Colpitts

Of the people commenting, by my count there were about twice as many opponents to granting the special use permit to Wal-Mart as there were supporters. As a resident of the town of Orange, I made it a point to attend the meeting and voice my opposition to the special use permit, in part because there’s been a lot of talk recently about how “outsiders” have been driving the opposition against the wishes of the people who live in the county. Although there were indeed a number of people from nearby counties and from Richmond and D.C. and even Ohio in attendance last night, it was gratifying to see how many Orange County people showed up and spoke with conviction in favor of preserving this portion of the Wilderness battlefield while it’s still possible to do so.

Wal-Mart was at the meeting in force, with a line-up of lawyers, architects and others taking up most of one of the front rows. One of the Wal-Mart people gave a pretty slick presentation at the beginning with lots of diagrams and best-case scenarios about traffic and jobs and taxes. His talk was full of cheerful corporate euphemisms–at one point he waxed eloquent about a planned “360-foot pedestrian promenade” that in reality will be nothing more than a sidewalk through the parking lot if the Wal-Mart goes through. (I guess that’s progress. None of the other 4 or 5 Wal-Marts that already exist in the area around here have sidewalks in the parking lots.) After he finished, it almost seemed as though Wal-Mart was here in a generous spirit of altruism to do everybody in the County a big favor.

Fortunately, most of the people in attendance weren’t buying it. I’m modestly optimistic that the Planning Commission will consider the issue honestly and take into account all of the opinions that were voiced last night, both pro and con. It’s possible that the Commission may even recommend denying the special use permit, although I’m not holding my breath.

Unfortunately, even if the Commission does recommend denying the permit, it’s the County Supervisors who will ultimately make the decision, and 3 of the 5 Supervisors have already made it clear that they’re in favor of the Wal-Mart no matter what the people of Orange County or anywhere else may want. A couple of them were at the hearing last night, in fact, hobnobbing with the Wal-Mart reps.

So if you have a chance to visit the Wilderness in the next month or two, don’t pass it up. By this time next year, I’m afraid, the experience will have changed significantly and not for the better.