The Military in Virginia

Plans for a 1,500-unit New Urbanism-styled development in eastern Spotsylvania County are on hold after leaders at the Army's Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County told county officials that they'd prefer the land around the base remain mostly rural and undeveloped, says this story in the Fredericksburg paper.

The proposed New Post project, by Tricord Homes, is 2.5 miles away from the 76,000-acre base but that's apparently not far enough. Which puts fast-growing Spotsylvania in an odd situation - it's not clear if Army officials have said exactly how far outside their boundaries they'd like this rural/undeveloped area to extend.

Tricord CEO Doug Jones told the paper he thinks he can resolve the Army's concerns. But one county supervisor, Hap Connors, raises the question of whether A.P. Hill's actions amount to a federal taking, telling the paper, "If the federal government is going to start making local governments' land-use decisions, we've all got a problem."