THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9407300240
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The relentless sprawl of the Washington suburbs and a proposed theme park in northern Virginia threaten the preservation of Shenandoah National Park, according to planners at a symposium on the park's future.
The symposium on Thursday and Friday brought together park officials, conservationists, businesses and scientists, who explored the expected pressures on the park over the next 100 years.
Growth in the areas surrounding the park is chief among these pressures. The eighth-fastest growing state in the country, Virginia will continue to see an influx of residents during the next two decades, said Katherine Bishop, director of the Virginia Commission on Population Growth.
``You're going to see it here sooner than later,'' she said Thursday, adding that if the Walt Disney theme park project is approved for Prince William County, it will be much sooner.
``What if the park becomes the place where you get cheap accommodations while visiting Disney?'' she said.
But the biggest threat to the Shenandoah Valley and the park is the westward expansion of the District of Columbia suburbs. Unlike the Disney project, this kind of growth will be shaped not by state politicians and spin doctors, but local planning commissions and town councils.
``What will kill Shenandoah National Park are the small decisions made by local governments'' that could lead to ``the suburbanization of the lands that surround the park,'' Bishop said.
Along with increasing the push to concentrate new residential development in small areas or ``clusters,'' another - albeit unpopular - way to stop suburban sprawl is a regional approach to land-use decisions, Bishop said.
Such an approach is in the early planning stages in the Charlottesville area, said Mike Collins of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. Called ``sustainable growth,'' it stresses interconnections between different localities, balancing residential and commercial development with conservation priorities and ultimately limiting development to a level that can be safely sustained by the environment.
``These are not popular ideas in this state.'' Bishop said.
In light of what keynote speaker Edward Clark, executive director of the Wildlife Center of Virginia, called a mood of ``angry populism'' against federal mandates and infringements on property rights, several speakers suggested that voluntary measures and education are more viable alternatives.
Public support appears to be there for such measures, said John Davy of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. More than three-quarters of all Virginians think that protecting open space is important, according to a study conducted by the department.
``There's a budding stewardship ethic growing. . . . We not only have a role and a responsibility . . . but an opportunity,'' Davy said. ``You can't regulate any more. The pendulum is swinging the other way.''
KEYWORDS: DISNEY AMERICA by CNB