Important info for Virginia Relic Hunters...

[j.d. in missouri]

LOOK what I found!! hehe.... this is a perfect argument why relic hunters should be allowed to hunt!! Right from the Archaeologists and State officals mouth themselves they say Archaeological Digs are too expensive for housing projects!!! I know 500 people who will do it for free!!!! Because if they pass it and Pay the ARCHIES even private property will be off limits... they already snuck it in a few counties last month!! .....just read it!!
Stafford weighs costs of digging into history
June 23, 2006 1:31 am
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/...06232006/201391
By CLINT SCHEMMER
Stafford County supervisors will take a second look at a plan to require developers to do archaeological studies on historically significant property.
The Board of Supervisors has tasked members Pete Fields and Paul Milde with forging a compromise between conflicting proposals by the Stafford County Historical Commission and Friends for Stafford Civil War Sites.
The board split over the proposed ordinance this week after listening to testimony from commission Chairwoman Annette Dodd, Friends Director Glenn Trimmer, and representatives of the local building industry.
Officials of the Fredericksburg Area Builders Association and Stafford Council for Progress as well as Trimmer criticized the ordinance as too expensive, too broad and potentially ineffective.
Dodd defended it as a professional tool long needed by Stafford to research, document and protect the county's historic sites.
Dodd told the supervisors she disagrees with the Friends' critique of the ordinance, noting that county officials have been refining the proposal for years. Without it, Stafford has little power to protect its heritage, which includes the prehistoric, Colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
The ordinance would protect sites and artifacts, encourage more study of local history, and "foster community pride and sense of place," she said.
Further, Dodd explained that there are important reasons why archaeological surveys are done and why they must follow specific procedures.
"There are far more cultural and historic resources in Stafford County than those relating to just the Civil War," she said.
Stafford's proposed cultural resources ordinance--which is similar to laws in the city of Williamsburg and Loudoun, Prince William, Fairfax and New Kent counties--was endorsed unanimously by the Planning Commission last month. If adopted, it would govern all applications for rezonings, conditional-use permits, grading plans and commercial and residential site plans.
Under the ordinance, a landowner would have to hire an archaeologist to study his development site and write a report if county officials believe the site had important historical artifacts or features.
But when it comes to the county's many Civil War sites, Trimmer said most are already known to local historians--and 80 percent of their artifacts have already been dug up by relic hunters over the past 50 years.
Instead of spending money on archaeology, he told the supervisors that more can be accomplished by preserving Civil War sites and creating monuments and markers to tell their history.
"The best artifacts of all are the sites themselves," he said. " We suggest that the county ask itself, what are you really after?"
An archaeological study costs between $20,000 and $100,000, or more, developers say. If important historic materials are found, they may have to donate lots or redesign their plans.
Those costs would be a heavy burden for some landowners, and will be passed along to home buyers, Trimmer and the industry representatives said.
Trimmer's nonprofit group has done a lot of the homework on eastern Stafford's Civil War sites, identifying and documenting 23 of them in a study it presented to county supervisors and the Planning Commission this week.
Among its recommendations, that report urges Stafford officials to:
Require archaeological sites to be identified with Global Positioning System coordinates linked to Stafford's land-use mapping software--for easy, pinpoint reference by landowners, historians and county officials.
Develop criteria that archaeologists should use in surveying Civil War sites in the county, requiring them to identify all fortifications, trenches and groups of rifle pits; where regiments or larger units camped; and to reference records of units that were known to be in the vicinity.
Create an index for archaeological studies and historic-site reports in the county's files, so they can be quickly researched.
"We have got to get together," Trimmer said of his group, county officials, developers and archaeological firms.
Wendy Wheatcraft, Stafford's historic preservation planner, has said Stafford needs the archaeological ordinance because she can only require preservation of artifacts found on a certain few sites. "I can make all the recommendations in the world right now, but they don't have to comply with any of them," she said recently.
The Friends group, saying Wheatcraft and her predecessors have been overwhelmed by their workload, is urging the county to hire more preservation planners.
Supervisors Milde and Fields are expected to report back to the board in August.
Staff writer Meghann Cotter contributed to this report.
To reach CLINT SCHEMMER: 540/368-5029
Email: cschemmer@freelancestar.com