Letters To the Editor

Dulles Decision Shouldn't Put Campus In Jeopardy

The recent Washington Post article, "GMU Hits Stumbling Block in Plan for Campus Near Dulles," written by Post reporter Amy Gardner [Metro, Oct. 22], contained several statements that could lead readers to conclude that unless the Dulles South CPAM is approved by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, George Mason University will not receive the land for the campus and that the university will not locate in Loudoun.

"The plan is in jeopardy because it depends heavily on the success of a controversial proposal to open up an area known as Dulles South, a largely undeveloped, 9,200-acre area west of the airport along Route 50, to high-density residential development," Ms. Gardner writes. "GMU officials said their vision will not work without the roads, shops and housing proposed for the area by Vienna-based developer Greenvest LLC."

However, Loudoun residents should not worry about implied threats that the promised land from Greenvest will be withdrawn if the Dulles South CPAM is denied.

In a Sept. 7, 2005, article in The Washington Post, both GMU President Alan G. Merten and Greenvest chief executive Jim Duszynski said action by the Loudoun supervisors would have no effect on the gift of the land by Greenvest.

The story reported Duszynski as saying that his company would donate the land to GMU whether or not supervisors approved the Greenvest project.

And Merten said that county approval for the Greenvest project was not a prerequisite for the opening of a GMU campus, adding that he did want to see development in the area. "We don't want a rural campus," Merten was quoted as saying. "I want people around us."

I would imagine that the 15,000 to 20,000 houses already approved for the Dulles district would satisfy his request. The Dulles South CPAM, basically a plan promoted by Greenvest, could add an additional 33,000 houses to Dulles South.

GMU did not make the same land-use request of Prince William County officials when the university decided to locate a campus in that county. At GMU in Prince William, the nearest restaurants are just two fast-food establishments about two miles away.

And there is only a two-lane road connecting to the Route 234 Bypass or to Wellington Road, itself a two-lane road.

At the Prince William GMU Campus, there are no on-site restaurants, cleaners, banks, etc. At the Fairfax campus, GMU built the Johnson Center, which has rented space to restaurants and other commercial entities.

Massive development is not needed to support GMU's expansion in Loudoun. "When we moved out to Fairfax, there was nothing out there in the 1960s. When I went out to Prince William the first time, there was nothing there," Merten is quoted as saying in the September 2005 Post article.

It is curious that this GMU land-use lifeboat has surfaced only after intense public opposition to Dulles South. Loudoun supervisors should not let clever public relations on the part of Greenvest influence their decision on the Dulles South CPAM. The board can keep massive development and the accompanying traffic from flooding Loudoun County while assuring the residents of a quality university by denying the proposed Dulles South CPAM.

Steve Hines

Aldie