July 18, 2002
<bt>Formerly: The Burling Tract
Acreage: 337
Location: Georgetown Pike west of I-495, along the Potomac River
Originally proposed for: 309 houses
Acquired as parkland: Sept. 5, 1970
Present use: Nature preserve. No development other than remains of a log cabin that burned, and a flag pole once owned by Edward Burling.
Strategist: John Adams, now 67, of McLean, formerly the managing partner for the Hunton & Williams law firm in Washington, D.C. He was backed by “hundreds” of other citizens and students.
Length of effort: 1969 - 70
How it happened: Until her death in 1999, watercolor artist Elizabeth Miles Cooke lived in a pink house at the corner of Swinks Mill Road and Georgetown Pike. As recounted in her book, “ The History of the Old Georgetown Pike,” Cooke noticed “a small green sign” that announced a public hearing on a proposal for cluster development of 309 houses on the 337-acre tract that had been sold after the death in 1967 of Edward Burling, a Washington attorney who had founded the Covington and Burling law firm. He had used the property as a weekend retreat.
The McLean developer, Miller and Smith, contracted to purchase the property in 1969, but first needed county approval to clear the tract and cluster the homes to avoid the steep slopes of the Potomac palisades.
After she saw the notice for the hearing, Cooke held a meeting at her house, and Adams attended. Also present were Sharon Francis, a former aide to “Lady Bird” Johnson; Townsend Hoopes, a former Air Force assistant secretary, and other McLean neighbors with ties to Washington’s power structure.
Many belonged to either the Saigon Citizens Association or the Old Georgetown Pike and Potomac River Association.
They organized.
“This was a citizens’ effort from beginning to end,” said Adams. “It started with a handful of us, and grew into hundreds of Dranesville [District] citizens including legions of McLean and Langley High School students.
“We were opposed throughout by the local power structure, including our Dranesville supervisor, planning commissioner, and the McLean Citizens Association.
“We suffered multiple defeats before the Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission, Fairfax County Park Authority, and the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.
“But after a year and a half of effort, we cobbled together $1.5 million by taxing ourselves in Dranesville District, $1.5 from the United States Secretary of the Interior, and $600,000 from state and local governments to acquire for $3.6 million 337 acres of gorgeous Potomac River Frontage.
“That’s the thing that always amazes people,” Adams said. “We had eight or nine defeats when it was all over, but we never quit. It shows what citizens can do. It was a total citizens’ effort.”
The group commissioned environmental studies and asked national conservation groups for support. They asked Fairfax County supervisors to buy the land as Dranesville District’s park. The board voted no.
The supervisors, including Happy Bradley of Dranesville District, regarded Miller & Smith as a careful, environmentally-conscious developer that would respect the steep slopes and elegant vistas of the Potomac River Palisades.
They defended the county’s master plan, which designated the property for residential development. So the group of miscellaneous naturalists went over their heads.
Adams said they got support “from the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, [Walter Hickel], half a dozen U. S. senators from around the country who gave speeches on the Senate floor, and a Supreme Court associate justice” who enjoyed tromping through the woods with his dog to Burling’s log cabin.
WHEN THE BOARD of Supervisors wouldn’t budge, Marian Agnew organized her Langley High School gym students. They liked to hike to the waterfall where Scott’s Run pours into the Potomac River, and they didn’t want the land cleared for houses.
They presented the board with a petition bearing the signatures of 2,320 out of 17,200 voting residents in Dranesville District.
Next came network television news cameras to attend a Planning Commission meeting after the citizens had asked for a special tax district to pay for the purchase.
Garfield Kass, the developer of the Seven Corners shopping center, had offered the money to hold the property until a referendum could be put before the voters.
The Planning Commission agreed, and a measure to create the special tax district passed by 450 votes on July 14, 1970.
Even then, Miller and Smith sent forth bulldozers to begin clearing the land, which they still owned. But some of the citizens lay prone in their path, or tied themselves to trees, in protest.
But eventually, terms were worked out, and in September the county paid $3.6 million for the land, or about $10,000 an acre, including $1.8 million from federal sources.
Adams estimated the cost of the citizens’ effort at $700.
Cooke died in 1999, and some of the original protesters have moved. But Adams and his family still live near the park, now 360 acres in size, and walk there often, he said.
“It’s like seeing the Washington Monument,” he said. “It always gets me.”