A History of the Western Bypass I wrote in April 2015

Someone sent this question to me. I can't remember off of the top of my head, but I responded, as you can see. This didn't go through an editor, but I believe I'm accurate. Or at least, I will make corrections if any are necessary. A little of my own voice crept into this, more than would usually do so in the news articles I was writing at the time. I'm still trying to find my voice again.

I would really appreciate any insight you have on the Bypass's background, why it's been resurrected so many times, what considerations were taken into account when the decisions to stop it were being made, and if you can, any reports or articles (or people!) that might give some idea of what the costs and benefits were.

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This is really a story about how to treat national highways. Or, how development on U.S. 29 in Albemarle County led to the congestion that is the problem that both the bypass and the Route 29 Solutions projects aim to solve.

If you go back to aerial photos of the late sixties, you'll see that there really wasn't much development up U.S. north of Charlottesville. That would begin to occur in the 1970's as retail establishments such as Albemarle Square and Seminole Shopping Center were allowed by the board of supervisors in order to compete with the city of Charlottesville. Developers sought to capitalize on changing trends in housing preference and suburban-like developments without sidewalks and with many cul-de-sacs. This form of development was further encouraged by the county's adoption of a Comprehensive Plan in 1980 that restricted most of the county's commercial growth to a cluster that emanated mostly from U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville.

http://www.historicaerials.com/ (plug-in 1650 Rio Road East)

Meanwhile, U.S. 29 is a major highway that carries through-traffic north and south through the state. Looking at those aerial photos over time is astounding, because you see a three mile commercial stretch of the road increase in size. So, transportation planners sought solutions to the problem. In 1987, the Sverdup Corporation was commissioned to study several alternatives.

http://www.cvillepedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/File:19880600-29Bypass-CORRIDOR_STUDY.pdf

Alternative 10 was selected as the alignment the bypass would travel and the Commonwealth Transportation Board voted to accept this route in November of 1990. It would have traveled north from what is now the northern terminus of Leonard Sandridge Road in the middle of some of those neighborhoods that had begun to spring up in the western edge of the county's growth area.  Over sixty homes would need to be knocked down to make way for the four-lane highway, and the people who lived nearby weren't very happy about the idea.

They campaigned for VDOT to put the brakes on the road, or at least develop other roads first. The will of the elected bodies of Charlottesville and Virginia as well as the desires of the University of Virginia are enshrined in a document called the Three Party
Agreement which is detailed here:

http://www.cvillepedia.org/mediawiki/index.php/Three_Party_Agreement

In short, the community's elected officials asked for the bypass to be built only after the commercial zone on U.S. 29 was widened, the Meadowcreek Parkway was constructed, and grade-separated interchanges were built at key intersections to remove traffic lights and provide east-west connections.

And this was the plan. The widening was planned, as was the road that is now the John Warner Parkway. The interchanges were also planned.

In 1993, the anti-bypass Sally Thomas defeated pro-bypass Carter Myers in the 1993 election for the Samuel Miller District of the Board of Supervisors even though she wasn't on the ballot. Myers owns a lot of car dealerships that took advantage of prime real estate on U.S. 29 and was a vehement opponent of the interchanges. He and other businesses argued that the interchanges would turn U.S. 29 into an expressway that would hurt their businesses.

Even though Myers lost the chance to make local decisions, he would soon get to a more important perch to push for the bypass. Governor George Allen appointed him to the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

The first of the interchanges was planned for Hydraulic Road and U.S. 29. However, three of the four quadrants are in the city of Charlottesville, and the City Council rejected the idea following a January 1995 public hearing for a design that was much larger and intrusive than the concept that's on the table now. The following month, Myers convinced the CTB to vote on a plan to immediately begin advancing the bypass.

However, the local officials have recourse from unwanted transportation projects through the Metropolitan Planning Organization. In 1996 (and 2002), they passed a resolution that prevented any money from being allocated to construction of the project. That didn't stop right of way purchase nor preliminary engineering.

By this point, groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Piedmont Environmental Council were eyeing the project for lawsuits, and they argued in court that the project violated the National Environmental Protection Act. A judge would later dismiss eight out of nine counts, but their victory on that one count forced VDOT to conduct further review of the project.

That takes us to 2003, when the Federal Highway Administration cleared the way for the project to proceed. All that needed to happen was for the MPO to remove its block on construction funding. And no one knew for certain what the project would cost. It also wasn't a priority of Democratic administrations in the Governor's Mansion.

So, the project lay dormant. Albemarle spent a lot of time coming up with the Places29 Master Plan to address congestion on U.S. 29 by building parallel roads and building grade-separated interchanges. Meanwhile, the business community continued to fight those projects, and in 2009 they managed to elect a Republican majority to the board. This enabled a shift in the power dynamic of the MPO, and in May 2011, Supervisor Rodney Thomas made noise that he wanted to amend the MPO's prohibition on construction funding.

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/6210-mpo-bypass-policy/

The clock had begun to tick on the right of way that had been purchased. Forces in Danville and Lynchburg had always wanted a bypass because they had built similar facilities on their portions of U.S. 29.

A week later, he asked the Board of Supervisors to take a vote on this, and that vote failed 3-3. Most people thought that was the end of that.

Governor McDonnell's secretary of transportation, Sean Connaughton, thought otherwise. He managed to convince Lindsay Dorrier to change his vote, but that couldn't occur until the following meeting. That's when the famous "midnight vote" happened that allowed the MPO representatives to change their votes, and the bypass was officially resurrected.

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/6192-western-bypass-revival/

However, to allow construction funding to be allocated to the bypass, the MPO still had to update its long-range transportation plan. That led to a busy summer with many public hearings. The bypass got fully funded, but our reporting showed that the cost of the project was being low-balled. Meanwhile, they also had to update their NEPA document, as the record of decision had passed. That meant they had to take another look at the project's impacts.

But what's really important is that change happened in Richmond again, and the project didn't have the support of the FHWA nor the new Democratic governor. The environmental review got bogged down in February 2013 when claims were made that the bypass would disturb a potential historic site - the graveyard of Jesse Sammons. Without this find, it's possible the project would still be under consideration.

But it wasn't. The end of the road came on February 18, 2014, when the FHWA sent a letter indicating they wanted more study of the bypass, including potential alternatives, before they could support it. It's worth it to read this letter, which is accessible through our story.

http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/17307-federal-bypass-scrutiny/

Then we began to quickly move forward with the Route 29 Solutions package, which is being fought by the business community. The only difference this time is the McAuliffe adminstration moved quickly to begin this, whereas the McDonnell administration moved slowly to get the bypass going and they ran out of time.

So here we are now, with major projects coming. Are they the best solutions? How would you even quantify best in this situation? The current solutions take no homes and take no businesses, whereas the bypass would have affected the quality of life in six county neighborhoods. Local governments make choices and decisions that affect the environment (built and natural) for everyone. These decisions need to be made in the public eye, and citizens must have a better sense of how these structures work.

CST Update

It was a good night at Court Square Tavern. I cooked for a family of eight people, and I got most of it right. I'm unhappy with how one of the items came out, but life is about continuing to learn from mistakes.

I was also glad to be behind the bar again, and glad to be there for people who wanted to come on in, despite the rain. I love it when I have a full bar (all five seats!) because that's when random encounters occur between people who would never otherwise speak.

I needed tonight. I've worked at Court Square off and on for 15 years this August. I don't often think of it that way, It's just my other job, the one I do for more than just money.

Thoughts on local government

Tonight I attended a local government meeting in a locality where I'd never before attended one. 17 out of the 18 people spoke out in favor of the item I'd gone to see, and the one who spoke against made reasoned pointed for his opposition. I've spent a good chunk of my life reporting on local government and now attending meetings in a different role.

I've been interested in municipal government since I was in middle school, when my neighborhood banded together to successfully fight a development project. Even then I could see the developer's point of view and tried to understand all of the arguments.

In the city where I live, there are really good discussions going on about the future. The last year or so have been difficult with new people coming into the system and wanting to know how things work. I've watched the process unfold and I have faith that Charlottesville will be a better place for the current conversations that are going on.

I learned early on in my journalism career that I wanted no part of covering national politics. I spent late 1995 and early 1996 covering the Republican primary in New Hampshire, and realized that a lot of that was just pointless theater, so disconnected from the day to day.

Tonight I see a lot of people talking about the political theater going on, and I wish I could convey the energy in the room tonight in Greene County, as well as the energy at the Albemarle meeting I went to before. Our civilization depends on healthy debate and I'm glad to be focused on the level government where I see that happening every single time I walk into a municipal building. I have hope because I see so many people who care about their communities.