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Tysons Developer Sues Dominion Over Power Line Proposal
Hazel, one of the most prominent names in the region, is now at the center of the issue. The veteran developer and land-use lawyer is largely credited with helping transform Tysons Corner from a rural crossroads into one of the largest business districts in the country. He began practicing law in the Washington area in the 1950s, helping the state condemn the land that later would become the Capital Beltway. He is widely credited -- and scorned -- for transforming the region into a densely developed series of commercial and residential "edge cities."
Although Hazel appears to oppose the kind of vista-spoiling development that he has been accused of promoting himself, his attorney said, the suit does not seek to stop the power line.
  John T. "Til" Hazel Jr. is suing Dominion Virginia Power. (James A. Parcell - The Washington Post) |
And the suit has not earned him friends among a broad coalition of well-organized power line opponents, such as the Piedmont Environmental Council, a conservation group that Hazel helped found three decades ago. The group split with Hazel as its members began opposing the kind of residential development that was Hazel's livelihood.
The council opposes the power line, and it has pushed to keep it off of property that has been placed in conservation easement. In fact, the organization has played a key role in persuading property owners to conserve their land in this way.
The council's spokesman, Robert W. Lazaro Jr., would not comment yesterday on Hazel's lawsuit. Others have said that Hazel is exhibiting NIMBYism, or the Not in My Back Yard approach, in which property owners seek to block development because it harms them directly.
"It's not needed," Fauquier Supervisor Harry Atherton (I) said of the power line. "That's the best way to stop this project -- not just to move it over where it's out of your viewshed."
But Hazel and his relatives want neither to block the power line, Fallon said, nor to remove it from their property. Rather, they believe that Dominion -- at the urging of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation -- has inappropriately limited its options by declaring eased land off-limits.
The proposed route barrels through the front yards of three members of the Hazel family -- who can "throw rocks at this power-line route and hit it," Fallon said. But it might make more sense to run the line through John Hazel's land, which is eased, Fallon said.
There is nothing in state law prohibiting the taking of land in conservation easement, Fallon said. In fact, state law requires that eased property taken through eminent domain be recompensed elsewhere. That language implies that the taking of property in easement is legal, Fallon said.
Dominion has not finalized a route for its portion of the 240-mile electric transmission line, a $1.3 billion project planned jointly by Dominion and Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Power. Last week, the company released a map of several possible routes, all of which roughly track Interstate 66 between Winchester and a substation just across the Prince William-Loudoun county line.
Although Dominion can use eminent domain to take private property for a power line, the company usually tries to negotiate a settlement with a landowner in accordance with state law, said John D. Smatlak, Dominion's vice president for electric transmission.
