designing public consensus

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.  

An earlier post describes the public debate about building metrorail over or under Tysons Corner, a classic “edge city” in Northern Virginia (second only to NYC in office and retail space on the East Coast). Video clips of a recent rally have shown up on YouTube and a young blogger, clued in to the controversy by a PR executive who attends his church, has been following the progress of the debate, as reported in the Washington Post. Of course, there’s also a dedicated website for tunnel supporters, with one-click access to petitions, supporters, and handy forms for contacting the Governor and Secretary of Transportation.

There’s “confusion and angst” in Northern Virginia, where a groundswell of support for a metrorail tunnel through the busy Tysons Corner area—and strong opposition to current plans for an elevated track—may have come too late. The tunnel, once deemed too expensive, now seems feasible, but key decisions on the project were made more than a decade ago.

As the Washington Post reports, everyone is puzzling over this question: “How is it that an option that almost everyone agrees is preferable probably won’t get built?”