Bill Would Block Stores Near Battlefield
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WASHINGTON — Two congressmen moved Wednesday to protect a historic Civil War battlefield, introducing legislation for the federal government to purchase the land next to the site in order to block a planned shopping center.
The bill, authored by Reps. Robert J. Mrazek (D-N.Y.) and Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.), would direct the Interior Department to purchase from a developer a 600-acre plot of land adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park, where two important Civil War battles were fought.
They said plans for a 1.2 million- square-foot shopping center would violate the battlefield site. “Both of us are convinced that the local developers and politicians intend to build the shopping mall,” Andrews said.
The land-purchase bill comes a week after Mrazek attached language to a House appropriations panel supplemental spending bill that would block any federal highway money for road improvements associated with the center.
The 3,800-acre Manassas battlefield, about 27 miles west of Washington, was the site of the first significant land battle of the Civil War in 1861.
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