Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
The hotel, the building and the riverboat all figure in the schemes of various lawmakers to exact a price for their votes on a $163 million plan to bring the Walt Disney Co. to Northern Virginia.
And the Christmas tree? That's what the deal may look like before all the bartering is complete.
What debuted as a can't-miss, Chamber of Commerce dream project when Disney unveiled its hatched-in-secret plans for a 3,000-acre park and development in Prince William County is shaping up as a high-stakes test of the horse-trading, coalition-building skills of the young Allen administration.
As a result, a Disney project that seemed certain in the rosy glow of last November's announcement is looking a tad shakier in the harsh light of February, lawmakers said last week.
"It started out on a very fast track, and it's slowed down somewhat. We're starting to get some concerns from Hampton Roads. How's it going to affect Colonial Williamsburg, Kings Dominion, Norfolk in its efforts to promote Nauticus?" observed Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, president pro tempore of the Senate.
Such regional concerns, coupled with questions raised by a coalition of Northern Virginia opponents, mean that the Assembly's money committees are "beginning to look real hard" at the proposal. "You may be looking at a special session," sometime after the Legislature adjourns March 12, before the review is complete, Walker said.
Still, interviews with legislators and business and political leaders leave little doubt that support for Disney remains strong. Three busloads of supporters, led by state chamber officials and Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathleen Seefeldt, easily drowned out opponents at a public hearing in Richmond last week.
State officials ranging from Republican Gov. George Allen to Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer are unwavering in their support.
At a press conference last week, at which opponents unveiled 32 alternative sites - any of which, they said, would be better for the mixed land-use development - the president of the Piedmont Environmental Council noted, "We don't want to be responsible for running these people out of the state."
The reason is tax and employment numbers that, while not guaranteed, are tantalizingly huge in a post-recession economy.
Disney projects that it will invest $650 million in the site by opening day in 1998. Direct employment at the theme park, which will combine thrill rides with lessons in American history, is expected to total 2,700. But Disney says indirect employment from nearby hotels and related development boosts the number to over 12,000, and a William and Mary economist has projected that Disney will spawn 19,000 jobs by the year 2007.
While economic estimates made by supporters and detractors vary wildly, Disney says state and local governments can expect conservatively to glean more than $1 billion in state and local taxes over the next 30 years.
Nor is the threat of going home to California a card that Disney is above playing.
Asked last week if the company might drop the project if the General Assembly or Prince William officials delay their timetable, Disney spokeswoman Jane Adams replied, "We'd probably have to take another look at our time frame and the financial ramifications of a delay . . . It's very important to us that we stay in our time frame."
Disney's veiled threat is not, however, keeping Virginia lawmakers from looking out for their self-interests.
"Where does Southwest Virginia benefit directly from it?" asked Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, in a typical response.
Roanoke-area delegates suggested that, while voting for Disney, they'd like to see money for such pet projects as Virginia Tech's training program at the former Hotel Roanoke or Explore Park.
Sen. Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond, while cautioning that "we're not using anything as leverage at this point," said there's been discussion of seeing what Allen might do for the "state agency building between Eighth and Ninth streets" in Richmond.
That's the Richmond delegation's preferred name for the building that was supposed to become a new home for the state lottery, until Allen refused to sign off on a bond sale needed to pay for it.
And House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, and some other Hampton Roads lawmakers are arguing that Norfolk deserves approval of riverboat gambling if the local delegation is to back Disney.
Meanwhile, last week in Haymarket, the tranquil hamlet 35 miles west of Washington that will become a boomtown if Disney arrives, lines also were forming.
About 14 groups - some of them veterans of successful fights in recent years to stop the building of a Redskins stadium in Alexandria and a major mall near the Manassas battlefield park - have coalesced in opposition.
But, unlike the earlier episodes, supporters of Disney are fighting back. The opponents are "no-growth people who have stunted the growth of Northern Virginia for a number of years," said Robert Singletary, a former Reynolds Metals executive who lives less than a mile from the site and heads the "Welcome Disney" group.
Singletary said he is optimistic that the Legislature will end up on his side. "It's a process, a human process. You give, you take," he said of the legislative machinations. "Still, Disney's position is extremely strong. The important thing is that we not lose Disney because of a vocal minority."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB