Another uprising in the Piedmont
Of the many case studies in Designing Public Consensus, one of my favorites is the story of Disney’s public participation Waterloo on the “Hallowed Ground” of the Virginia Piedmont (Chapter 6, “Opposition”). Disney proposed to build a historical theme park, called Disney’s America, on the rolling hills west of the Northern Virginia suburbs. They were shocked to find it heavy going against an interesting coalition of farmers, horse breeders, millionaires, environmentalists, nationally-renowned historians, and well-funded advocacy groups.
This was actually the third development battle to be fought in this scenic area, and the countryside has won every time. Now the fourth battle has been joined by Dominion Virginia Power, which wants to build a 500,000-volt power line (with 177-foot towers) right through the Piedmont. An amusing Washington Post article—”High Voltage, High Tension“—lays out the issues. Two lines tell the story:
Those who propose to bring “progress” to this territory reliably run into resistance of which they never dreamed.
[Dominion’s VP for electric transmission] has heard of the Disney debacle but doesn’t see any connection to the uprising over his power line.