The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Homes and businesses may someday fill the landscape on a stretch of pristine property once within earshot of cannonfire from Kentucky’s bloodiest Civil War battle.

Landowner Pete Coyle envisions turning the approximately 34-acre tract on the edge of Perryville into a housing subdivision along with an assisted living center and limited commercial development.

A national Civil War preservation group is so worried by the proposed development that it placed the Perryville battlefield site on a list of the nation’s 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields.

The designation this week comes amid a rezoning proposal that would clear the way for the development.

The proposal won approval recently from a sharply divided Danville-Boyle County Planning and Zoning Commission but still must win backing from the Perryville City Council. Perryville Mayor Anne Sleet said Friday that she hasn’t made up her mind on the plan.

The development in the central Kentucky town about 85 miles southeast of Louisville would be visible from hilltops about a mile away at the battlefield, where more than 7,500 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded or missing after five hours of fighting in October 1862. A Confederate withdrawal after the battle secured Kentucky for the Union.

The Perryville battlefield—which includes nearly 670 acres that have been preserved—has long been considered a historic gem because of little or no modern encroachments. The battlefield draws about 100,000 visitors yearly and has been the site of two national Civil War re-enactments this decade.

“When you’re here, you’re in 1862,” said Chris Kolakowski, executive director of the Perryville Enhancement Project, a preservationist group. “I could take any veteran of the Battle of Perryville ... out to the ground that they fought on, and they would be able to recognize where they were.”

The property wasn’t the site of fighting but was a key transportation route as troops marched toward battle and some came back bloodied and wounded to be seen at makeshift hospitals, he said.

Kolakowski said he’d prefer that the property remain undeveloped, but there’s a bigger concern—an adjoining 52-acre rural tract closer to the battlefield.

That property is also owned by Coyle, who has had talks with the state about a possible conservation easement to protect the 52 acres from development. Coyle said he hopes an agreement can be reached, but added, “anytime you’re dealing with the state with budgets, you never know.”

The talks come at a time when Kentucky lawmakers are putting together the state’s next spending plan while grappling with a nearly $900 million projected revenue shortfall over the next two years.

Coyle envisions the subdivision becoming a haven for empty-nesters and retirees. The addition of just over 50 homes, the assisted living center and commercial development would be a boon to the historic town of about 800, generating new tax revenue in a community with little growth opportunity, he said.

James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, sees it differently. He said the rezoning applications threaten the “historical integrity of the area.”

It was the first time that the trust, a nonprofit battlefield preservation group, added the Perryville battlefield to its annual list of the nation’s most endangered Civil War battlefields.

Kenneth Noe, an Auburn University history professor who has written a book about the battle, said he was “floored” to see the Perryville battlefield added to the endangered list.

“I can’t think of anyone who has done a better job of preserving a battlefield than the people of Perryville and Boyle County,” he said.

He’s worried about the proposed development and even more concerned about the precedent it might set. “It could have national implications,” he said. “If it can happen at Perryville, it can happen anywhere.”

Kolakowski said it would be the first major residential development on the end of Perryville closest to the battlefield. “Do we want to see it stay agricultural? Yes,” he said. “But we’re realistic enough to know that may or may not be a possibility.”

The property includes a strip of land that was a road used by the Confederates to move soldiers to the front, haul supplies and transport wounded troops to hospitals. Coyle said he wants to see that strip turned into a hiking and biking trail that would lead from town to the battlefield.

The development would be visible from a couple of hills at the battlefield, including one where Confederate artillery was positioned and soldiers moved to attack Union lines further west, Kolakowski said.

“The way the terrain is out here, anything within about two or three miles of the park is going to be visible and is going to impact the vista and be an intrusion on the landscape,” he said.

Still, Kolakowski sounded conciliatory in discussing Coyle’s development plans, with his bigger concern being safeguarding the 52 rural acres from development.

“It’s his property,” Kolakowski said. “We’re trying to balance his desire to develop it with preservation needs. We’re trying to strike the best balance.”

Coyle said he’d like to see an outcome in which the 52 rural acres are left undeveloped.

“There was blood shed there; people being carried back from the battlefield to the hospitals,” he said. “It’s still hallowed ground.”