"It's increasingly looking like last year's controversial Prince William Board of County Supervisors performance 'Brentswood' may be coming again soon to a political theater near you -- during the political sweeps after the NNovember 2007 elections.

"If Brentswood does return, expect one of last year's main stars, Wally Covington, to reprise his role as political shill-in-chief for Brookfield Homes. Wally's enthusiasm for this role is greatly strengthened by the fact that he's a big landowner with lots of big landowner friends who hope to sell their land at a killing some day to big residential developers.
"If recent local news stories are any indication (see Oct. 24 Gainesville Times story on Gainesville Interchange), the biggest plot twist in the historically revised, delicately spun story line will be that Brentswood 2005-2006 was a good thing because it would have handed out 'hundreds of millions of dollars in proffers, including a promise to foot the bill for the interchange,' and the Brentswood plan's very existence 'shamed' the state of Virginia into building the interchange.

"While this version of events is neither historically authentic nor logically feasible (adding 20,000 new residents and no new roads to an already heavily-congested two-square mile area cannot reduce congestion), it is appealing to Brookfield Homes, the financial backer of the performance.

"Go to the Web site http://pwcbg.org/BrentswoodI.html, for more information. This includes the following: Brookfield was not legally obligated to make any road improvements outside Brentswood, and even if it did do so, it was to be reimbursed by the Virginia Department of Transportation and county taxpayers.

"As George and Ira Gershwin might say: Wally Covington's got starlight; he's got sweet dreams.  Brookfield's got their man. What [developer could ask for anything more]?"