GMU Misled Board, York Says

Campus Needed Yes on Dulles South

George Mason University officials said they still hope to find a suitable site in Loudoun County now that plans for an Arcola campus are dead. But several supervisors said it would be difficult to trust the university after the shifting statements that preceded last week's vote on development in Dulles South.

"I believe very much that they had an opportunity, despite what might have been said in the past, to come clean when they met with us," said board Chairman Scott K. York (I). "When [GMU Chief of Staff J. Thomas] Hennessey [Jr.] met with us, he didn't."

Plans for the new campus represented the latest incarnation of GMU's evolution from the Fairfax County branch of the University of Virginia to a full-service regional university. The campus was to be built on 123 acres owned by Vienna developer Greenvest. Hennessey told supervisors late last month that the university's plans would proceed regardless of the outcome of the board's vote on whether to allow Greenvest and other developers to build thousands of homes in the Dulles South area.

That turned out not to be true, and several board members, led by York and Supervisor James G. Burton (I-Blue Ridge), are not happy about it. They think GMU became inappropriately involved in the fate of Greenvest's development plans. And they believe that both Greenvest and GMU tried to use the specter of a Loudoun campus to win support for those plans.

"I'm having problems with George Mason's credibility right now," Burton said. "I have no idea what it is we would be getting ourselves into."

Added York: "How do you put faith into developing an agreement when they misled you the first time?"

Hennessey said he never intended to mislead county leaders about the university's plans. Still, it's clear from public statements that his and Greenvest's characterizations changed.

For months, GMU and Greenvest had said that the developer's gift of land to the university would proceed free and clear of the board's land-use decision. Hennessey's comments at the board's Oct. 30 work session simply confirmed an impression firmly established in supervisors' minds. Board Vice Chairman Bruce E. Tulloch (R-Potomac) even said he thought the land had already changed hands.

At that meeting, Burton asked Hennessey: "Do you plan to take possession regardless of the [board's action]?"

Hennessey replied: "Yes, sir." He went on to say that the homes and retail development planned by Greenvest near the campus were crucial to the endeavor's success. But he made no statement suggesting that the university's plans would go away if Greenvest's did.

"It's a simple issue," Hennessey said. "If [the development] is there, it will speed up the development of the campus. If it's not there, it will be a long, hard slog."

The characterization changed when Burton and York pressed Hennessey and Greenvest officials to document their arrangement in writing. In a joint letter this month to the board, Greenvest and GMU explained that the developer would convey the land at no cost only if Greenvest's development were approved. Otherwise, they said, Greenvest would give the university six months to buy the land.