The Mouse is under attack. Four months ago, the Walt Disney Co. announced plans to build a historical theme park on 3,000 rolling, rural acres in the foothills of Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains.
Starting in 1998, Disney’s America is expected to draw up to 30,000 visitors a day from the tourists who flock to the monuments and museums in Washington, about 40 miles to the east.
Since the splashy announcement, however, Disney’s plans have been the subject of fierce debate. Issues range from the theme park’s impact on the nearby Manassas Civil War battlefield and other truly historic sites, to the historical accuracy of Disney’s proposed exhibits, to the cost to taxpayers of a new interchange on Interstate 66 and the other improvements the park will need.
The arguments recall those that surrounded the birth of Disney World in Central Florida three decades ago and, more recently, the controversy over plans for H. Wayne Huizenga’s Blockbuster Park on the Broward-Dade couty line.
Opponents in Virginia say they have been getting advice from Floridians who don’t like the way Disney’s presence has helped turned swaths of Greater Orlando into a sprawl of motels, T-shirt shops and fast-food restaurants.
Jane Adams, Disney’s chief spokesman for the Virginia project, plays down the comparisons.
Disney’s America will be much smaller than Disney World and is intended for one-day visits that are as much educational as entertaining, she notes.
“We’re not talking about putting Walt Disney World in northern Virginia,” Adams said. “We don’t want to generate a zillion hotel rooms. We’re purposely building a park that is different from Walt Disney World. We certainly don’t want to compete with ourselves.”
As it did when it developed Disney World in Central Florida’s, the entertainment giant secretly assembled the land it wants to avoid driving up prices.
Scott Stahley, a Disney executive from Orlando, kept his identity hidden even from the real estate brokers who worked with him. He pretended to be Scott Roberts, of Phoenix, and used a New York law firm and a variety of corporate shells to lock up contracts and options to buy 10 parcels.
The largest piece, about 2,000 acres, was owned by Exxon, which had planned to build 2,800 homes and a golf resort.
Disney insists it is not interested in installing self-government on this land, as it did with the Reedy Creek Improvement District in Central Florida, and as Huizenga’s planners have proposed for Blockbuster Park.
But Disney is seeking all necessary government approvals, including a major rezoning of the land, as if it is any other large planned development.
To soften up opponents, Disney is promising school sites and some other public facilities. Workshops and public hearings on the Disney proposal are scheduled to run through this fall.
Polls found an initial burst of enthusiasm for Disney’s plan here. But opponents assert that Virginians’ attitudes will change as the debate plays out. A poll conducted in December by George Mason University found support by nearly 76 percent of those familiar with plans for Disney’s America. A survey conducted for Disney in early January found 65 percent support.
“Given that Disney has been entertaining Americans for most of this century, no one should be surprised” by the level of support, said Bob Dennis, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council and its anti-Disney campaign called Take A Second Look.
“But Disney’s popularity is not the issue,” he said. “The issue is whether this theme park is in the best interests of Virginia, and whether Virginia’s taxpayers should be subsidizing one of the wealthiest corporations in the world.”
Disney officials counter with a flood of studies, including economic- benefit analyses that say the jobs and tax revenues produced by the park will more than offset the costs of road improvements and other needs.
“We think it’s a good situation for Virginia-a good park, a quality development and a lot of new revenue,” Adams said.
Disney’s studies predict that the park will directly employ 2,700 people, and will generate nearly 10,000 additional jobs and more than $640 million a year in spin-off impact.
That revenue, the company argues, more than covers the cost of highway improvements and other incentives that the new governor, George Allen Jr., has recommended to the Virginia Legislature.
Allen’s package includes $134 million for highway improvements (some of which were already scheduled), another $45 million in bond authority for utilities and other services, plus additional items like $13 million over three years to help promote the park.
The Virginia House and Senate last week approved scaled-down versions of Allen’s plan.
When he submitted his package Jan. 20, Allen said Disney’s project “is exactly the type of economic engine we need to generate jobs, stimulate economic activity and expand the tax base.”
But critics howled, saying Disney should pay for the I-66 interchange itself.
Dennis’ group has produced its own economic projections suggesting that Disney overstated its potential revenue benefits by 4 to 10 times. It also complained that many if not most of the jobs will be minimum-wage or nearly that level.
That complaint generated overtones of a class war at the first legislative hearing on state participation, in Richmond Feb. 3.
The leading opponents include owners of large white-fenced estates where horses are raised and foxes are hunted, while the ranks of proponents include low- and moderate-income people in northern Virginia who want to see jobs and development.
“They have the mind set of Leona Helmsley,” said Debbie Reedy, a Disney supporter from Fauquier County.
“They have their trust funds, while we travel long and far to find jobs.”
