Northern Virginia lacks a smart-growth plan

In 1993, Disney was planning a theme park in Northern Virginia. It was to be called, "Disney's America." The company never broke ground. By 1995, Disney abandoned the project under pressure from preservationists and a fair number of rich folks who live in that part of the state, about 20 miles west of Manassas, Va.

It was about 3 a.m. when I got word from a reporter that Disney was leaving. I was the managing editor of the Manassas daily newspaper. This was big news. David had defeated Goliath.

Manassas is about 35 miles west of Washington D.C. The town is mainly known for two major Civil War battles and, in more modern times, a woman who cut off her husband's penis for abusing her. The folks who wanted to protect sacred Civil War lands from commercialization were dead set against the theme park, as were some wealthy actors, entertainers and D.C. business leaders who lived in the peaceful rolling hills where the park was to be built. They didn't want the extra traffic and other perceived problems the park would bring. Disney promised new roads, jobs and a classy park, but it wasn't enough for some people to lay down their arms in Prince William County.

Bottom line, Disney got tired of dealing with the protests and bad press. Many Virginians felt they didn't need Disney's version of how America was formed. Many felt there was enough real history all around them. Construction wasn't only slowed down, it was stopped before the first tree was chopped down. The giant Disney corporation left town.

I thought about Disney's defeat the other day as I drove up Route 7 towards Leesburg. There is so much construction of enormous shopping centers and office/residential projects that many cars were caked in dirt that is kicked up 12-16 hours a day from bulldozers leveling everything in sight along a 10-mile stretch of road east of Dulles International Airport, not all that far from where Disney's America was to be built. The traffic crawled, as it does all around Northern Virginia on most days. It's becoming a very ugly part of Loudoun County.

Developers continue to pressure politicians to let them build. When the arm twisting isn't enough, legal action usually follows, and another Wal-Mart is built and another cookie-cutter townhouse community is erected. If given a choice between a Disney theme park and the constant ravaging of the land in Prince William and Loudoun counties by transient builders, I would have taken the theme park.

I can't help feeling that while a significant battle was won in 1995, a war is being lost in 2009. Not even the current recession is stopping developers from making a quick buck by scarring the land and clogging the roads. It's time, I believe, for Northern Virginians to organize, much the way they did when they stopped Disney's America over a decade ago. Mindless growth has to be contained.