THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996 TAG: 9603040074
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: STAFFORD, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Opponents of Wal-Mart's plans to build a superstore next to George Washington's boyhood home gathered over the weekend to attack the project for historic and economic reasons.
More than 200 people showed up for a rally Saturday in south Stafford County, carrying signs saying ``No Wal-Mart By George'' and cheering on Al Norman, a national crusader against urban sprawl.
``I like to compare Wal-Mart to a cheap pair of underwear - they keep creeping up on you,'' said Norman, a Massachusetts health-care lobbyist who successfully fought to keep Wal-Mart out of his hometown of Greenfield in 1993.
Wal-Mart has stores in Spotsylvania County just west of Fredericksburg and in northern Stafford County. Norman said the area does not need a third.
``They know the price of everything and the value of nothing,'' he said of the Arkansas-based company. ``And the county supervisors, they deserve a great big cherry pie in the face for ever letting this happen.''
The Richmond Group has proposed to put a 93,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and a 30,000-square-foot shopping center on 25 acres east of Ferry Farm, Washington's boyhood home. The store would have a Colonial-style facade, and the properties would be separated by 50 feet of trees and bushes.
Ferry Farm represents a portion of the estate where Washington lived from age 6 to 20, and where he is said to have thrown a coin across the Rappahannock River and chopped down his father's cherry tree.
The store site, which the Richmond Group has contracted to buy from the Samuel Warren family, was commercially zoned in 1990. That happened only after the Warrens gave about 40 acres of the former Washington estate to the county, a donation that includes what is believed to be the foundation of the actual home where Washington lived.
Stafford supervisors have largely supported the store because of the roughly 200 jobs and close to $600,000 in annual tax revenues they believe it can bring to the county.
The store's perceived encroachment on the historical value of the property and the restoration effort has been the main angle taken by opponents. On Saturday, Norman and other speakers attacked arguments that the superstore is good for the local economy, saying it takes its jobs and revenues from the existing retailers.
``What is good for Wal-Mart is bad for other businesses,'' said David Norden, who helped lead community opposition that kept Wal-Mart out of Warrenton.
Earlier in the week, Stafford Economic Development Director Gene Bailey disputed that theory, saying there has been no such counterimpact in the Virginia 610 corridor of north Stafford, where Wal-Mart opened a new store in January.
``The Wal-Mart store on Route 3 has an extremely good chance of creating a net 200 jobs,'' he said.
Jay Allen, Wal-Mart's vice president of corporate affairs, said he is ready to match statistics with Norman.
Wal-Mart opponents face a tall order. Because the site is already commercially zoned, the proposed store needs only the approval of the local Architectural Review Board, which next meets March 11. Even if the board denies the project, Stafford supervisors can override it. by CNB