In Clarksburg, the Year of Living Doggedly

It was Presley's nature to dig in when she felt she was correct. "You could argue the stripes off a tiger," her dad would tell her. And Presley was dug into Clarksburg, having purchased a $511,000 home there in 2002 with her husband, Greg.

On July 27, 2004, she joined about 100 residents at a nearby church to hear from the developer, Newland Communities of San Diego. From the back, Presley jumped in with questions about the retail plan.

"Where are you getting your marketing demographics?" she asked.

The Newland contingent said a large grocery store was needed to draw enough customers to anchor the retail development. A few minutes later, a woman Presley had never seen started reading from a county planning document. It was Shiley.

"This is what we're supposed to have," she told the crowd.

Afterward, Presley approached Shiley in the parking lot and offered to help. The next day, they headed to county offices.

The two quickly became friends, bobbing together in a sea of acronyms and planning jargon. They became convinced that the developers, in a series of plans submitted to the county, had promised much more for their quaint, walkable town.

At one point, about 15 Clarksburg residents were at the house of another record-digger, Carol Smith. Presley uncorked a blistering speech, arguing for probing more suspected problems and trying to change the broader planning process.

"I hope I'm not ever on the opposing side of you," resident Mark Murphy joked.

Now, about a year later, the women's crusade clearly has hit a nerve with Clarksburg's developers. They say the town will be as charming and walkable as promised and that Presley and Shiley are nitpicking even the most minor issues -- whether a certain townhouse is around the corner from where it once was proposed or whether a certain alley is six inches too narrow.

"Up to now, we don't have a party we believe we can negotiate with," Newland attorney Stephen Kaufman told Montgomery's planning board this month.

Presley acknowledged that not everything they've alleged needs fixing. But she said their broad search has uncovered important problems, including the retail core, inadequate parkland, altered vistas, homes crammed too close and streets too narrow.