Tourists come to Prince William to see special places. If a place is not "special," it does not attract visitors - no one travels any further than necessary through Northern Virginia traffic to reach a gas station or to walk the dog. People go to the most convenient location nearby for such standard, ordinary places.
Tourists travel distances to see extraordinary places, special landscapes, and rare historical sites that have unique value. Prince William is blessed with several sites of national and regional interest, including the Potomac River waterfront. The Manassas National Battlefield Park attracts 1 million vistors per year, providing an economic stimulus to local hotels and restaurants.
Prince William County has invested substantially in acquiring, restoring, and maintaining a handful of historic structures - Ben Lomond Manor House, Brentsville Courthouse and ancillary buildings, and Rippon Lodge in particular. (Bel Air Plantation is a private home, not open to the public except of special occasions.) If you count shopping as a "tourist" activity, then the concentration of stores at Potomac Mills is the most significant attraction in Prince William County... and Prince William officials have certainly zoned lands for shopping.
The most dramatic example of the county's priorities was the rezoning and official support for the Williams Center adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park in the 1980's. The county provided extraordinarily flexible zoning to the developers (Hazel-Peterson), in anticipation of attracting a major corporate headquarters. When the developers shifted plans to build a massive shopping center and housing development with minimal proffers to offset impacts on the community, the US Congress seized the land in a rare "legislative taking" and added it to the park. The county then sued for compensation of lost proffers, and the income from that suit has helped finance the investment in restoring Brentsville.
The county has been less interested in protecting landscapes, and the agricultural heritage of Prince William has been sacrificed in order to accomodate housing developers. When those interested in preserving the Civil War battlefield at Bristoe Station spoke out at a public hearing on the rezoning, county officials ignored the historic and environmental concerns. One supervisor leaned over during the hearing and asked the landowner where to draw a line for wetlands protection, and then made the motion to implement the landowner's response... demonstrating the extreme deference to the short-term economic interests of landowners and developers in the rezoning process, at the expense of the long-term interests of future residents. Only after historic groups (including the Bull Run Civil War Round Table) intervened later was a portion of the battlefield searched for gravesites, and then the Civil War Trust acquired rights to some of the Bristoe Battlefield.
At the end of the 20th Century, the supervisors designated a "Rural Crescent" in the Comprehensive Plan. If actually followed, the western fringe of Prince William County will end up fully developed with houses built on 10-acre parcels in the Rural Crescent. Though "build out" will accomodate many more houses, the Rural Crescent planning still offers a chance to conserve some of the rural landscape of the county.
It is in the economic interest of the county to protect "special" places. Tourists spend more money than they cost - in large part because their children go to school elsewhere. (Roughly half of the Prince William County budget is dedicated to schools.) Prince William County has no meals tax, but it does raise funds from tourists who stay in local hotels/motels. Prince William County levies a 5% transient occupancy tax on the price paid by customers at local hotels, motels, boarding houses and travel campgrounds. 40% of the Transient Occupancy Tax goes into the general revenue. The Board of County Supervisors appropriates the other 60% for propsals submitted by the Convention Visitors� Bureau (CVB).
Prince William County appropriates revenues from the tax to the Park Authority, and used the funds to acquire Rippon Lodge as well. The Fiscal Year 2003-2007 Projections of General County Revenues estimates that revenue from the tax will grow steadily:
Fiscal Year 1999 - $566,755 (actual)
Fiscal Year 2000 - $698,232 (actual)
Fiscal Year 2001 - $867,013 (actual)
Fiscal Year 2002 - $960,971 (estimate)
Fiscal Year 2003 - $1,065,000 (projected)
Fiscal Year 2004 - $1,185,000 (projected)
Fiscal Year 2005 - $1,314,000 (projected)
Fiscal Year 2006 - $1,498,000 (projected)
Fiscal Year 2007 - $1,654,000 (projected)
The Economic Development Goal in the FY2001 - FY2005: Strategic Plan of the county has a specific strategy for attracting tourists:
STRATEGY 3: Focus on tourism and historic preservation as positive contributors
to economic development.
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