Builders continue to chip away at the Rural Crescent, with constant purchases of land and requests for exceptions to the Comprehensive Plan. Via the WaPo [www.washingtonpost.com], so it continues:

A hotel and conference center and 650 houses in the Rural Crescent are among the 13 applications that Prince William County has received to amend its Comprehensive Plan, a long-range blueprint for zoning.

The Manassas National Battlefield Park is asking to be recognized as a "cultural resource" instead of open space, and some residents have banded together in an effort to reduce development from four housing units per acre to one per 2.5 acres.

The hotel and conference center sounds more ominous than it really is, though. It's described as:

"It's one of those things where if you want to have a wedding or a graduation party or a debutante ball, they would do the catering and everything," Utz said.

Utz is Raymond E. Utz, the county's chief of long-range planning.

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