Good News on the Preservation Front Concerning Wildnerness and Walmart

I just came across this story from the Associated Press.  Great news!:

Walmart drops bid to build near Wilderness Battlefield

January 26, 2011 - 9:41am

ORANGE, Va. (AP) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is dropping plans to build a store near the Wilderness Battlefield in northern Virginia.

 

Lawyers representing the Arkansas-based retailer made the announcement Wednesday in Orange County Circuit Court.

 

Wal-Mart had planned to build a 143,000-square-foot Supercenter near the site of the Battle of the Wilderness, which is viewed by historians as a critical turning point in the Civil War. An estimated 185,000 Union and Confederate troops fought over three days in 1864, and 30,000 were killed, injured or went missing. The war ended 11 months later.

 

Wal-Mart had said the store would be within an area already dotted with retail locations, and in an area zoned for commercial use. Residents and preservationists argued the store would bring traffic and more commerce to Locust Grove.

 

Hundreds of historians, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson, filmmaker Ken Burns and actor Robert Duvall had appealed to Wal-Mart to walk away and find another place to build in the county of less than 35,000 people.

 

In August 2009, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved the special use permit Wal-Mart needed to build, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation and residents who live within three miles of the site challenged the board's decision.

 

Wednesday was to be the second day of a trial seeking to block the project.

Looks like the lawsuit and public pressure got the company to do the right thing.