Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406140127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANNE GROER ORLANDO SENTINEL
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Eisner's Washington blitz - which includes a Capitol Hill power lunch hosted by House Speaker Tom Foley and an invitation-only screening of the animated movie for up to 1,000 people - comes a week before a Senate subcommittee hearing on Disney's America.
The planned $650 million, 3,000-acre development, 35 miles south of Washington, is near the Civil War battlefields of Manassas and two dozen other historic sites.
The project - which will include a theme park, hotels, homes, golf courses, shops and offices - is expected to draw 8 million visitors annually when it opens in 1998.
Among the lawmakers invited to the luncheon and screening is Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., who will be chairman of the June 21 public lands and national monuments subcommittee hearing on the impact Disney's proposal would have on the Manassas battlefields.
Eisner and other Disney officials also have requested meetings with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner.
Babbitt, whose agency oversees national battlefields, and Browner, who has jurisdiction over wetlands and air pollution, were invited to the screening but do not plan to attend, aides said.
Disney has strong ties to Washington Democrats. Between January 1992 and March 1994, Disney, its subsidiaries, Eisner and other top executives gave $250,000 to the party, according to the Federal Election Commission and the watchdog group Common Cause.
The federal government has some authority over the Disney's America project, but the state of Virginia and Prince William County have the most to say on zoning variances, sewers, building permits, tax breaks and subsidies.
Theme park opponents, ranging from prominent historians to local landowners, fear the park will trivialize history, further clog commuter-choked highways and spawn tacky strip malls outside the Disney property.
The park's champions, including Gov. George Allen and a majority of Virginia legislators, say the park will create jobs and generate millions in new taxes.
Eisner and Foley worked out the bipartisan luncheon guest list of nearly 40 House and Senate members. The Disney CEO will pick up the tab, said Foley spokeswoman Robin Webb.
"The Lion King" festivities will continue Thursday with Eisner and other Disney executives hosting a pre-movie reception, a screening and a party at the National Zoo. Disney, like other corporations, will pay $25,000 to use the zoo after hours.
by CNB