City holds design public hearing for Meadowcreek Parkway interchange

By Sean Tubbs
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Sunday, November 1, 2009

Opponents of an interchange that would connect the Meadowcreek Parkway to the Route 250 Bypass and McIntire Road outnumbered supporters at a public hearing held Thursday night. The meeting was the first public hearing on this particular $32.5 million interchange design, which will elevate Route 250 over McIntire Road and the Parkway.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast: Download 20091029-Interchange-Hearing

(Click for a larger image)

The design, which has been developed by the firm RK&K, will utilize a pair of traffic signals on McIntire Road and the Parkway to control access to the bypass. The majority of funding for the project comes from an earmark made by former Senator John Warner (R-VA). The public hearing was facilitated by Becky Clay Christensen, who asked citizens to limit their comments to the design of the interchange, and not the parkway project as a whole.

Supporters of the project included Tim Hulbert of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, Bob Hodous, and Charlottesville resident Tobias Stengl. He said he supported the project because it will relieve traffic on Park Street. Charlottesville resident Scott Bandy said the design was not perfect, but he supports the project moving forward.

However, the majority of the 40 people who spoke were opposed to the interchange as well as the Meadowcreek Parkway.

Michael Wolin of the Southern Environmental Law Center said his organization could not support the interchange and called for City Council to approve it only if the parkway is closed to traffic on weekends. Park Street resident A.E. Dick Howard said the project would fit better in Northern Virginia. John Cruickshank of the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club called the interchange a “monstrosity.”

“This interchange will be as high as a telephone pole, as long as the downtown mall, and will pave over much of the beautiful landscape of McIntire Park,” Cruickshank said.

Former City Council candidate Peter Kleeman said the project would increase the length of time it takes for the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) to respond to calls.

Colette Hall of the North Downtown Residents Association points out the reasons she opposes the interchange

Many of the opponents speaking at the hearing live or work in the immediate vicinity of the interchange. The headmaster of the Covenant School, Ron Sykes, said he is concerned the project will require the removal of many trees on school property, and will limit access to the school. Daniel Bluestone said the design “is nothing short of appalling” because pedestrian and bike paths have been removed in order to cut costs.

Several people took issue with the way the design was rendered for the public hearing. Rich Collins of Sensible Transportation Alternatives to the Meadowcreek Parkway (STAMP) called the depictions “auto-centric pornography” which does not truly represent the impact the interchange will have.  Landscape architect Breck Gastinger pointed out that the drawings depicted mature trees along the median, which will not grow to that size for many years.

Even some supporters of the project were not happy with the design. Anton Largiader of Charlottesville said he would have preferred the roundabout alternative that was recommended by the project’s steering committee.

Many opponents of the project were concerned that the road was being built for the primary benefit of Albemarle County. John Pfaltz blamed City Council for not doing enough to push Albemarle County to build an eastern connector. Charlottesville resident Mark Cabot said growth on Pantops is driving the need for the interchange, and that it is not fair for a road to be built through the heart of Charlottesville when Albemarle County will not support either a western or eastern bypass.

Several former City Councilors were on hand to express their opinion about a project that some helped to get off the drawing board. Former Mayor Virginia Daugherty said she still supports the project, and prefers the traffic signal to the oval roundabout that was recommended by the project’s steering committee because it will be easier for pedestrians to cross. She told the opponents that the parkway is a two-lane street, and that the parkland that will be removed will be replaced.

However, fellow former Mayors Nancy O’Brien and Francis Fife spoke out against the project. Former City Councilor John Conover, who served on the steering committee, said that the project has gotten worse over time as pedestrian paths have been removed the project to save costs.

Citizens have the opportunity to submit written comments through the project’s website through November 9.

A summary of the public comments will be presented to City Council at a November 16 meeting. A memorandum of understanding regarding the mitigations that will have to be performed in order to satisfy federal regulations has not yet been signed.  Other steps remaining include approval by the Commonwealth Transportation Board as well as the final federal regulatory approvals.  If those are granted, the Virginia Department of Transportation will begin purchasing right of way, with an advertisement for construction bids estimated for early 2011. The project is expected to be completed by late 2013.

TIMELINE FOR PODCAST:

• 01:00 - Hearing opened by Angela Tucker, Development Services Manager for Charlottesville
• 04:30 - Becky Clay Christensen
• 12:50 - Michael Wolin with the Southern Environmental Law Center
• 15:45 - Timothy Hulbert of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce
• 17:15 - Bob Hodous 
• 20:00 - Former City Council candidate Peter Kleeman
• 22:30 - Ron Sykes, headmaster of the Covenant School
• 24:20 - Rich Collins of Sensible Transportation Alternatives to the Meadowcreek Parkway
• 27:10 - Charlottesville resident Anton Largiader
• 30:21 - John Cruickshank of the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club
• 33:15 - Charlottesville resident Scott Bandy
• 34:45 - Mary Howard of Preservation Virginia
• 38:10 - Charlottesville resident A.E. Dick Howard
• 40:45 - Charlottesville resident Lilian Clarke
• 42:00 - Charlottesville resident Galen Stengl
• 43:20 - Karen Shepherd, Executive Director of MACAA
• 45:45 - Charlottesville resident Tobias Stengl
• 48:30 - Charlottesville resident Catherine Rey
• 50:00 - City Council candidate Bob Fenwick -
• 52:50 - CARS President Larry Claytor 
• 55:10 - Former City Councilor John Conover
• 58:00 - Colette Hall of the North Downtown Neighborhood Association
• 1:01:00 - Charlottesville resident Kelton Flynn
• 1:02:00 - Charlottesville resident Virginia Germino
• 1:02:45 - Charlottesville resident Laura Ryden
• 1:06:00 - Charlottesville resident Pat Napoleon
• 1:07:00 - Charlottesville resident John Pfaltz
• 1:10:00 - Charlottesville resident Daniel Bluestone
• 1:13:00 - Charlottesvile resident Stratton Salidis
• 1:16:00 - Charlottesville resident Ernie Reed
• 1:19:00 - Charlottesville resident Matthew Trowbridge
• 1:22:30 - Charlottesville resident Mark Cabot
• 1:25:45 - Charlottesville resident Betty Mooney
• 1:28:45 - Charlottesville resident Breck Gastinger
• 1:31:15 - Former Mayor Virginia Daugherty
• 1:33:00 - Charlottesville resident David Stackhouse
• 1:35:40 - Jim Moore, chair of the McIntire Park Golf Committee
• 1:39:00 - Charlottesville resident Ted Jones
• 1:41:40 - Charlottesville resident Dede Smith
• 1:43:00 - Former Mayor Nancy O'Brien 
• 1:46:00 - Former Mayor Francis Fife
• 1:47:15 - Charlottesville resident Barbara Smith
• 1:50:00 - Closing comments from Becky Clay Christensen
• 1:50:45 - Closing comments from Angela Tucker

Comments

[Stratton Salidis]

The Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park (with the possible exceptions of the North Downtown Residents association, and Preservation Virginia, which have not yet had a chance to review it) has emailed, and will soon send the attached letter to the various agencies mentioned in it. Current Mayor of Charlottesville Dave Norris, former Mayors Nancy O’ Brien and Francis Fife and former City Councilors Kevin Lynch and John Conover have also endorsed this letter.

To the agencies with review responsibilities over the Meadowcreek Parkway/Interchange project,

The CPMP and numerous individual citizens have contended from early on that the critical components of this undertaking have been deliberately segmented in order to evade historic resource, parkland, and environmental protection laws which come with federal funds and/or approval.

Whatever one’s opinion about why Charlottesville and VDOT chose to segment this project, there is indisputably a very consequential falsehood underlying much of the parkway/interchange process. As this fiction is stated in its Route 250 Bypass Interchange project website's “Frequently asked questions“:

“If the interchange is not built, the McIntire Road Extended (City) and Meadowcreek Parkway (County) projects will proceed as planned… The no-build alternative would include an at-grade, 17-lane intersection at the Route 250 Bypass, McIntire Road and McIntire Road Extended.”

The above statement is a rewriting of history. VDOT’s own engineers advised against such an intersection, as it would dramatically undermine the function of the Rt. 250 bypass. More importantly, Charlottesville did not agree to, and in fact explicitly rejected this 17 lane at-grade version in City Council’s letters to VDOT and in its resolution to authorize the use of Charlottesville’s parkland.

Thus, the Route 250 Bypass Interchange project team – under the supervision of a majority of Charlottesville’s City Council - is misleading citizens with the statement that an at-grade, 17-lane intersection would “proceed as planned“absent an interchange. No such plan has been agreed to.

Intentionally or not, the city’s fabrication has been used by the FHWA to make a determination that this project can be lawfully segmented. As it also forms a false premise from which to determine the need for, impacts of, and feasible alternatives to the federally funded interchange, the results of these studies are not only inaccurate but deceptive.

VDOT, the administrating agency for MRE, is engaged in similar duplicity. In a June 30, 2008 letter, VDOT wrote to Charlottesville’s City Manager:
"This letter also certifies that this temporary construction easement will not be used to construct an at-grade intersection at the Route 250 Bypass. In addition, the construction plans for the MRE project have been revised to terminate before reaching the Route 250 Bypass at the proposed project limits of the new interchange...”

Yet, despite this acknowledgment, VDOT recently submitted the discarded 17 lane at-grade design to the U.S Corps of Engineers for permit approval while coordinating a different set of plans with the city and FHWA to build a road which, without the interchange, would end in a field 775 ft from the Rt. 250 Bypass.

We ask that the U.S Corps of Engineers discontinue processing the permit needed for MRE until VDOT provides a logical southern terminus for the road. The 17 lane at - grade version which VDOT submitted does not meet this requirement, as the design:

- Contradicts VDOT’s documented agreement with the city and the actual plans being coordinated among the parkway/interchange projects administrating agencies.

- Is not funded; as the budget for MRE was reduced to reflect the fact that the last 775 of what VDOT presented to the Corps as a state road is actually planned to be part of the federally funded interchange.

- Cannot be constructed with the easement authorized by councils resolution, which specifically precludes an at – grade interchange.
We also ask the DHR and ACHP not sign any Memorandum of Agreement for the parkway/interchange project until appropriate protection of historic resources, which accounts for the following, is offered:

-The decision to include the 17 lane at- grade parkway, which is intricately linked to the interchange, as the “no build” condition is without statutory justification, and this decision – along with the fact that the sec. 106 process was long delayed - has severely constrained opportunities for avoidance and mitigation of impacts that would be caused by the interchange.

- The cumulative effects of the Interchange with the rest of the parkway project were not considered.

- Even relative to only the direct impacts the current interchange plan would have, the mitigation proposed would be still grossly inadequate to the scale of damage to our protected historic resources.

-It is contended that, an (not the current design) Interchange without a parkway could address existing operational deficiencies at McIntire Rd and the Route 250 Bypass. There is no basis for this claim; despite numerous citizen requests, no Interchange alternative without a parkway was studied.

As owner of McIntire Park and the administrator of the Route 250 Bypass Interchange project, City Council must come clean with its citizens and partner agencies and acknowledge that a 17 lane at-grade intersection was not agreed to, and that the interchange was deemed by Charlottesville a critical component of the Meadowcreek Parkway project.

This stance would necessitate evaluation of the project as a whole with regard to compliance with federal law, and citizens would then have the information needed to meaningfully participate.

The CPMP has sent a letter to Senator John Warner requesting that he support allowing the earmark he sponsored for the Meadowcreek Parkway Interchange to be re-appropriated to other transportation projects in the Charlottesville area. We ask council to do likewise.

The parkway/interchange proceedings have been largely founded on the 17 lane at- grade untruth, and this must be corrected if the process is to be made legitimate.

The CPMP advocates that the parkway/’interchange project not be built. Regardless of your position on the merits or shortcomings of the proposed road, we hope you will agree that Charlottesville’s citizens have the right to honest government, and act accordingly within your agencies mandate to enforce the letter and spirit of the law.