News! Chancellorsville - Mullins asks plenty for Route 3 farm

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Mullins asks plenty for Route 3 farm
By BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER

04/18/2003
Fredericksburg Free Lance Star

Forty million dollars.

That's the price preservationists say John Mullins told them he wants
for his nearly 800 acres along State Route 3--land where a Reston
developer had hoped to build a new town.

"We buy land all over the country, and we pay fair market value," said
Jim Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust. "This is so far out of the realm of reality that it's almost laughable."

Representatives of the Trust met with the Spotsylvania County resident
and his attorney April 7, Lighthizer said yesterday. Mullins offered to sell smaller portions of the farm for $30 million and $27 million.

Preservation groups have expressed interest in buying some or all of
Mullins' farm because fighting took place there on the first day of the Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville. "Either he thought we were fools, or he agreed to the meeting so he could say he had the meeting," Lighthizer said.

Mullins said this week he would not discuss talks he has had with
preservationists or developers in the month since the Board of
Supervisors rejected the Town of Chancellorsville project.

"Everybody has had their chance," he said. "That's all I'm going to
say."

Dogwood Development Group of Reston, which proposed building the Town of Chancellorsville, has let its contract on the land expire, Mullins said. Dogwood President Ray Smith could not be reached for comment, but the expiration would seem to rule out legal action challenging the board's decision.

There has been speculation that a different developer might seek a
rezoning, albeit for a smaller scale project than the one Dogwood
proposed.

County sources said a rezoning proposal was floated in a closed-door
session Tuesday, but found little support on the board. The board said
only that the closed session was to discuss an economic-development
prospect.

Mullins has met with county officials, including Courtland District
Supervisor Bob Hagan and Board Chairwoman Mary Lee Carter, since the
March 19 vote against the town.

"John met with the preservationists and the county," said Hagan, whose
district includes the farm. "The end result of those meetings is that he is going to proceed with a by-right development."

Mullins said his land will be developed as zoned--offices and stores on 55 acres and 225 homes on the rest. He said an announcement may be made in the next 10 days.

Carter said she is "sure Mr. Mullins will have a development of the
highest quality. That's what he's always been interested in."

If Mullins carries out his plans, none of the battlefield will be
preserved, there will be no buffer on Route 3 and no major road
improvements.

Carter said it's a shame a portion of the farm can't be preserved and
developed as a stop for tourists. She would have liked to have a small
building there with a movie about the fighting in that area. "I guess we won't see that," she said.

Lighthizer said his group and other members of the Coalition to Save
Chancellorsville Battlefield will continue their fight to preserve some or all of the land.

But Lighthizer said it appears unlikely the groups will be able to reach a deal with Mullins, whose asking price amounts to about $50,000 an acre, or seven times the $5.6 million assessed value of the property. Mullins, a local funeral-home owner, paid $2.2 million for the land in 1995.

"I can't imagine a sober land developer paying anything close to that," Lighthizer said.

Similar land in Spotsylvania with a higher zoning classification is
going for $7,000 to $9,000 an acre, he said.

Lighthizer said Mullins based his price on what Congress paid a
developer for land at the Manassas battlefield in 1988. The high price
in that case was based on the intense zoning and development of the
property and the fact that Congress got involved, Lighthizer said,
factors that don't exist in the Mullins case.

"It wasn't even apples and oranges. It was apples and parakeets,"
Lighthizer said.

He said if Mullins sells his land to a developer, the coalition will try to negotiate with the new owner.

[sean_harris]

Well, what can you say, what an *ss Hole!!! I have a few bullets from Fredericksburg I would be more than willing to sell for roughly $10,000 each!!!!!

Meet me on E-Bay! What next, selling tufts of the field in a ziplock for a nominal $100.00!

LMAO Sean