
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 30, 1994                   TAG: 9409300019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BYE, MICKEY; DON'T GO FAR

WALT DISNEY was clearing every legal hurdle to move forward with its plans to build an American-history theme park in Northern Virginia. But it couldn't jump clear of the continuing opposition of preservationists who saw the development as a threat to the history it was meant to celebrate.

The continuing bashing that Disney could count on taking - from well-organized forces mobilized in the field and able to wield influence in neighboring Washington - might have delayed the project. It certainly wasn't going to enhance Disney's squeaky-clean image. And it wasn't going to go away.

So today, historians worried about maintaining the integrity of nearby Civil War battlefields, preservationists worried about the impact of D.C.'s sprawl, and neighboring wealthy landowners worried about their receding countryside, are celebrating Disney's decision to abandon its site a few miles from Manassas National Battlefield.

They deserve to celebrate. A different site would be a good thing.

But the rest of us need to understand that, other than location, not much has changed in the Disney controversy. Both the project's value to Virginia, and the need to plan for the consequences of growth, remain.

Indeed, the rest of us should celebrate that Disney isn't forsaking the project altogether, and is reportedly seeking a new site. It may well be - it certainly is to be hoped - that Disney's second choice will also be in Virginia. (Land around Dulles airport, for instance, where open space remains available but is already caught in the net of metropolitan growth, would offer a better location than the one abandoned this week.)

Anywhere in Virginia, Disney would constitute a major asset for the state's tourism industry, and so ought to be made welcome. Not as welcome, perhaps, as Gov. Allen made Disney, with excessive state assistance for infrastructure improvements and the like. But welcome, to be sure.

As for the consequences of development, some of the fears associated with Disney were not unfounded. Though Disney's America is planned on a much smaller scale than Disney World, it is sure to attract masses of people - and the promise of that is sure to attract fast growth around it, wherever it is located. That growth, rather than the park itself, could have had an impact on the battlefields (though drawing more visitors to them as well).

But growth is coming anyway. And keeping the surrounding countryside free of the tacky clutter of poorly designed development would require farsighted, sound planning with or without Disney.

The company's withdrawal may delay the threat and lower the scale of development that can be expected in the next few years in Prince William County. But the county's strategic plan lists environmentally sound economic development as its No. 1 priority. And a targeted industry in its comprehensive plan remains tourism and tourism-related business.

Controversy over the Disney project has underscored the need for statewide and regional planning that would lay out a consensus vision on how and where Virginia will grow, and how and where it will use and conserve valuable natural and historical resources. Disney's change of plans does nothing to diminish that need.

by CNB