Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 10, 1994 TAG: 9401100067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAYMARKET LENGTH: Medium
About 350 people came to a rural volunteer fire department hall on a cold afternoon to hear a parade of speakers deride Disney's environmental record and business practices.
"Disney is not planning to do anything small," Jim Price told the group. Price, co-founder of the opposition group Protect, said the Disney's America project would mean higher taxes and more traffic while threatening air and water quality.
Disney has proposed a $650 million American history theme park 35 miles west of Washington. Disney is asking for government financing for road and other improvements, which the company said will be more than offset by tax revenues from the development.
Disney said its project would bring more than 12,000 jobs to Virginia after the park opens in 1998.
But Price said most of those jobs will be low-wage and carry few benefits.
"That doesn't allow a resident of this area the ability to provide for his or her family," Price said.
Speakers also questioned Disney's traffic estimates, which predict little or no effect on congestion if the road improvements the company plans are built.
Disney last week presented a package of requested zoning changes to the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, which likely will vote on the project in September.
Disney estimated its project could add 25,000 cars to the area's roads when the park is completed. The figure is about three times what Disney had predicted a few weeks earlier.
"I don't know what the numbers are half the time, because every time I read the newspaper it's different," said Steve Gagne, another Protect leader.
Gov.-elect George Allen said at the outset he would help Disney knock down "any hurdles" to park development.
Several opposition groups participated in the forum, which included a videotape of a segment on ABC's "Prime Time Live," broadcast in 1991, critical of Disney's environmental record in Orlando, Fla., the home of Walt Disney World.
Calls to Disney officials Sunday night were not immediately returned.
Behind the podium were anti-Disney slogans and children's drawings of mouse ears beneath the circle-and-slash symbol. One group of opponents, called Take a Second Look, passed out bumper stickers that said "Disney Makes Millions, We Pay Millions."
Bob Elliott, a lawyer working with the Protect group, said Disney is disingenuous in saying it cannot estimate the cost of public-financed improvements.
"That's just not the case," Elliott said. "I think the Disney approach is to let the facts out a very little bit at a time."
The General Assembly will take up Disney's request for bond financing in the session that begins this week. Disney opponents plan a lobbying trip to Richmond on Jan. 24.
A few Disney supporters attended the meeting, among them Steve Merkli, who plans to sell land to Disney.
Merkli said the project will have a smaller effect than a residential project once approved for the same site.
"Don't believe me," he told the crowd. Gesturing to opposition leaders, he added, "You can't believe them, either. You have to check it out for yourself."
Merkli would not say how much he stands to make from the land sale.
"It will be adequate," he said.
Fred Potter owns 25 acres adjacent to the Disney property, but is not planning to sell.
"I don't think Disney has been candid with the citizens, and that's discouraging," he said after the meeting. "We need to tell our elected officials to be good negotiators and not just lie down."
by CNB