The Virginia project will test how far the company has come. With the vote to approve funding set in the Virginia Legislature for March. the opposition. financed by wealthy landowners. claims that the theme park will distort history, ruin the bucolic surroundings and leave taxpayers loaded with debt. But the problems in Europe have taught the company about building theme parks in a weak economy. This time the company will not hype projections or negotiate deals that don’t insulate it completely from risk. Such resolve is expected to win approval for the project in recession-racked Virgina, desperate for the jobs will bring.

In fact, no project better illustrates the company’s post-Euro Disney mind frame. Its fiefdoms in Orlando, Fla.. and Calif., attract people from long distances. But Disney’s America, 35 miles from Washington D.C.. will be geared toward day-trippers within a 300-mile radius and the 19 million people who visit the nation’s capital each year. Only one tenth the size of Disney World. it is planned as a more natural environment. Many of its 3,000 acres will remain undeveloped to buffer the Blue Ridge Mountains against the sort of strip-mall sprawl that surrounds Orlando. The company has taken options on enough land to build 1,200 more hotel rooms, 2,500 residential units and 2 million square feet of office space. But the initial stage calls for only the 100-acre theme park and a mere 144 hotel rooms (compared with 5,200 at Euro Disney).

Disney also seems to have learned that spectacular attractions do not have to be jumbo size. Not only are such projects expensive, but another large-scale overnight park might cannibalize business it Disney’s other properties. To date. Disney has invested more than 85 billion in Florida. It will spend only $750 million in Manassas. Disney’s characteristic hype has been toned down as well. While a state of Virginia study predicts Disney’s America will create 19,000 jobs. Disney Puts that number at 12,000. “Disney is not the one who has been blowing the horn loudest about how this will help Virginia,” says Republican Gov. George Allen, a vocal supporter of the park.

Disney hasn’t been shy when it comes to manipulating opinion, however. Its employees called homeowners to ask if they approved of the project. Those who said were simultaneously patched into the office of their local legislator. Each call cost Disney $8. Such hard-nosed methods have characterized its negotiating style as Even without resorting to its past practices of threatening to take the project elsewhere a historic park wouldn’t work as in another state-the has thus far gotten virtually everything it asked for from the governor. That includes $163 million in proposed bonds, no strings attached, for roads, worker training and promotion. The state predicts it will be able to pay off the bonds and still see tax revenues jump 40 percent, but if that doesn’t happen, the company has no liability. “These are moral-obligation bonds backed by nothing,” complains state Sen. Charles Waddell. Some lawmakers want Disney to pay for the improvements now and get partially reimbursed from tax revenue, but Disney intimates that would be a deal breaker. Other legislators have threatened to hold up approval of the Disney prospals until the governor pushes their pet projects through. If such schemes stall the vote in March, Disney could still leave for greener pastures. After the experience in France, the company is in no mood for a big fight. “What does not destroy Disney makes it stronger,” says a partner in Disney’s Los Angeles law firm. And if its plan in Virginia is any measure, smarter as well.