THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300018
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The Allen administration can now quit reeling from Disney's announcement that it won't build ``Disney's America'' in Northern Virginia - and get busy casting its eye around other locations in the commonwealth that can and will accommodate the theme park and its accompanying development.
As critics of the project in Prince William County heave a sigh of relief, local officials elsewhere breathe deep of renewed opportunity: They too can become a pin on the map of Virginia - still, Disney says, ``an ideal place'' for this project - that is still displayed on some Disney office wall. The quadrant that is Southeastern Virginia - already chockablock with historic and tourist destinations along the length of Interstate 64 east of Richmond all the way to the Atlantic - ought to be a veritable pincushion.
Presumably Gov. Allen and the General Assembly will be as willing to put together another ``incentive'' package of state funds. The $160 million incentive package wasn't a great idea earlier this year and it still has little to recommend it. A bidding war by various localities interested in a Disney theme park would be as destructive in the long run as this modern battle of Manassas from which Disney now retreats.
Disney's proud image as a good corporate citizen was clearly suffering under assault from Shelby Foote, C. Van Woodward, et al., as was the park's timetable for completion. Just as its critics of the Northern Virginia location had every right to protest the project, Disney has every right to look elsewhere.
But that's one down, 126 other localities to go; and one or more of them could prove not only more suited to the park but less adversely affected by even the downside of its accompanying development. In short, there should be no need to look outside Virginia. by CNB