Showdown looms over sale of Girl Scout site
Source: fredericksburg.com, by FRANK DELANO
March 05, 2007
A $16 million offer for a waterfront Girl Scout camp in the Northern Neck will be at stake when Northumberland County supervisors meet next week to consider a zoning change for the land.
Tina Dickerson, president of Girl Scout Commonwealth Council of Virginia Inc., said in a statement mailed to Scout leaders this week that the offer for Camp Kittamaqund, a 387-acre tract on the Great Wicomico River, is "upwards of $16 million."
Dickerson said the offer includes "a gift of significant acreage from the purchaser conducive to primitive camping, sailing and other water activities." Girl Scout spokeswoman Janice Williams would not describe the acreage further.
In her statement, Dickerson said one of the Girl Scouts' options is to "pursue litigation [against Northumberland County] for the loss of $16 million."
County Administrator Kenneth D. Eades said, "If the Board of Supervisors backed down every time somebody threatened a lawsuit, it would never get anything done."
The November decision of the Girl Scouts' board of directors to sell the 43-year-old "Camp Kitty" surprised and angered many Scouts and their leaders and parents. About 100 unhappy campers held a candlelight protest vigil at Girl Scout headquarters in January.
Partly in response to pleas from local Scouts, Northumberland supervisors last month enacted an emergency ordinance to prohibit development of the camp and other properties zoned for conservation uses.
The county's current zoning ordinance allows conservation parcels to be divided into lots as small as 80,000 square feet, or 1.84 acres. By that measure, the camp could be divided into 200 or more parcels along and near its three miles of shoreline.
"There's a feeling that the C-1 lot size is just too small," said Eades. "That's what I think the board will end up concentrating on at its meeting Thursday."
Eades said county planners are compiling--but have not yet finished--lot-size recommendations. The supervisors' decision will be the topic of a special board meeting and public hearing in early April, Eades said.
Meanwhile, The Free Lance-Star has learned that James T. Dise of Fairport is a principal in the potential purchase of the camp property. Fairport is a village near the Northumberland town of Reedville.
Dise, a mortgage banker, is a 1968 graduate of Northumberland High School. He went on to develop apartments and condominiums in Tidewater and Northern Virginia.
Dise said recently that "a company in which I have an interest" made the offer the Girl Scouts are now considering. He declined to speak publicly about details.
Dickerson said the Girl Scouts are planning to use Camp Kittamaqund for troop camping this spring, but no summer camping schedules have been posted on the Girl Scout Web site.
She also announced plans for a closed-door meeting between Scout officials and representatives of Scout associations March 31 at the University of Richmond.
"We know that our process was not perceived as ideal for some of our stakeholders," Dickerson said. "We are looking forward to an exchange that results in a path forward that supports our common interests and common goals."
