Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce expresses Grave Disappointment and Concern regarding Meadowcreek Parkway project

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce distributed the press release (below) expressing its "'GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT AND CONCERN' TO CHARLOTTESVILLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OVER DIRECTION WITH “GREAT POTENTIAL TO DAMAGE” KEY ROADWAY PROJECTS." A copy of a letter sent to Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris is attached.

I am a bit surprised that the Chamber is "concerned that Council is placing the City Attorney in the extremely difficult position of meeting with project opponents known to be preparing a suit to stop the project altogether, with an apparent assignment to assist those citizens with procedural elements of their case." I am curious if the Chamber contacted the city attorney on this matter prior to issuing this release. I attended the city council meeting where council asked the city attorney to meet with members of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park (CPMP) to ensure that all relevant issues of concern to the city and CPMP are included in a draft resolution for council consideration. It is well understood by CPMP members that the city attorney cannot provide legal advice to the coalition, and we have no intention to ask for legal advice. I have had conversations regarding legal issues regarding city actions in the past and know that our city attorney is well aware of his responsibilities as council to city council.

I am also disappointed that the Chamber appears to oppose consideration of all relevant federal, state, and local laws, regulations, ordinances, etc. prior to taking actions that may irreparably damage McIntire Park before legitimate concerns of parkland protection, historic resource preservation and federal transportation regulations are fully considered.

I requested during today's Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meeting that it - as the forum for consideration of regional transportation issues - host a community discussion of the true costs and benefits of the proposed project to ensure that the community decisions relating to this project are based on a comprehensive set of facts rather than isolated bits of information or opinion provided by a broad range of project stakeholders. The MPO members were not interested in serving as a forum for clarifying issues surrounding the project and moved on to other matters on their agenda.

To learn more about the project please come to C'ville Coffee on Harris Road (near the skate park) where CPMP will be holding a FUNdraiser and be providing information about their project concerns. The FUNdraiser is from 2-4 pm on Sunday March 28 at C'ville Coffee. There will be musical entertainment, comedy, and information provided. Tickets are $15 ($5 for under 12 year olds) . Come and enjoy the event and learn a bit more about how the Meadowcreek Parkway project will impact Charlottesville and McIntire Park. Check the bulletin boards around town for event details.

Chamber press release and letter to Mayor Norris follow:
“… dedicated to representing private enterprise, promoting business

and enhancing the quality of life in our Greater Charlottesville communities.”


cvillechamber.com

PO Box 1564 • Fifth & Market Streets • Charlottesville, Virginia 22902


RELEASE: IMMEDIATE


CONTACT: Timothy P. O’Brien 434.295.3141


CHAMBER OF COMMERCE EXPRESSES “GRAVE DISAPPOINTMENT AND CONCERN” TO CHARLOTTESVILLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OVER DIRECTION WITH “GREAT POTENTIAL TO DAMAGE” KEY ROADWAY PROJECTS


(Charlottesville, Virginia – March 24) The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce released a letter today sent to the Charlottesville City Council expressing the area’s leading business organization’s “grave disappointment and concern” over recent City direction about the McIntire Road Extended project – a key project needed to provide vehicular access into Downtown Charlottesville.


The March 22nd letter to Mayor David Norris and Charlottesville City Counselors stated, “Our Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce expresses our grave disappointment and concern about recent actions on behalf of the City of Charlottesville which appear to greatly compromise the City’s and Commonwealth of Virginia’s legal standing regarding the McIntire Road Extended Project, and bringing into serious jeopardy that vital project and many other projects of benefit to the City.”


“As you know,” the letter continued, “expeditious construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway & McIntire Road Extended projects – from Rio Road in Albemarle County to a new federal intersection project at US 250 & McIntire Road in the City of Charlottesville – providing a safe, attractive, accessible gateway to a vibrant, sustained downtown residential, shopping, entertainment and employment center, remain our Chamber's highest transportation priority projects.”


A copy of the Chamber letter to the City is attached.


The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to representing private enterprise, promoting business and enhancing the quality of life in the Greater Charlottesville communities. Founded in 1913, today the Chamber has 1,000 member enterprises. Chamber member enterprises employ more than 45,000 men and women in the Greater Charlottesville region, representing an estimated total payroll of more than $1.3 billion a year.




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3.24.10 – 10

Attachment: March 22, 2010 Chamber letter to Charlottesville Mayor & City Council







“… dedicated to representing private enterprise, promoting business

and enhancing the quality of life in our Greater Charlottesville communities.”


cvillechamber.com

PO Box 1564 • Fifth & Market Streets • Charlottesville, Virginia 22902


March 22, 2010


RE: McIntire Road Extended Project


Dear Mayor Norris and Honorable City Councilors:


Our Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce expresses our grave disappointment and concern about recent actions on behalf of the City of Charlottesville which appear to greatly compromise the City’s and Commonwealth of Virginia’s legal standing regarding the McIntire Road Extended Project, and bringing into serious jeopardy that vital project and many other projects of benefit to the City.


As you know, expeditious construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway & McIntire Road Extended projects – from Rio Road in Albemarle County to a new federal intersection project at US 250 & McIntire Road in the City of Charlottesville – providing a safe, attractive, accessible gateway to a vibrant, sustained downtown residential, shopping, entertainment and employment center, remain our Chamber's highest transportation priority projects.


Recent informal direction by City Council, apparently reversing more than forty years of City policy approved by numerous City Councils, politically linking two independent projects with separate and distinct functional utility, hold great potential to damage both of these projects’ prospects. This direction effectively halts progress on the McIntire Road Extended project just as the project is gaining its last needed permit, and at the 11-th hour of the awarding of a construction bid with very favorable pricing to the City’s and Virginia’s taxpayers. We are concerned that the impact of losing the $2 million benefit of these favorable construction bids was not treated more seriously. Clearly, if half or a full construction season is lost, it would be reasonable to assume project costs – taxpayer costs – will increase significantly.


Our Chamber is even more concerned that Council is placing the City Attorney in the extremely difficult position of meeting with project opponents known to be preparing a suit to stop the project altogether, with an apparent assignment to assist those citizens with procedural elements of their case. The City Attorney, by oath and public trust, represents the interests of the City – including advancing the McIntire Road Extended project, by repeated direction of City Council. Our Chamber respects Mayor Norris’ and others long-standing, firmly-held opposition to these projects. However, City Council has collectively voted to approve and forward this project on a number of occasions, and the public deserves to know that all Councilors, regardless of their personal opinion on a particular issue or project, will forward the official decisions of the Council, or, at a minimum, at least not interfere with such decisions. This is the basis of the public's trust in our democratic system.


2


As you know, the Commonwealth of Virginia has invested millions of dollars in the McIntire Road Extended project in reliance on the City Council's official actions to approve it. Should the City choose to maintain this highly inadvisable path and cause the project to not be constructed, it is very likely that the Commonwealth, in its fiduciary role as steward of extremely limited transportation funds, would pursue recovery from the City of those funds. Furthermore, it would make it extremely difficult for the City to ever obtain state transportation dollars in the future, given that funds will continue to be at record low levels for the foreseeable future, and the Commonwealth will likely be more inclined to invest those scarce transportation dollars in localities with a more reliable track-record of partnership. Other communities within the Commonwealth gladly would make use of funding Charlottesville cannot advance.


We are further concerned that these recent reversals may only further exacerbate already-frayed tensions between the City and Albemarle County. Our citizens and business enterprises want our two localities to work together for the common good of our larger community at all times, but especially when cost-savings can be achieved as a result of such cooperation. Albemarle County has invested millions of dollars in their project, and the City should see its project through as well since it has voted to officially approve the project.


Again, our Chamber urges the Charlottesville City Council to proceed with construction of the McIntire Extended project and final planning stages of the federal US250 – McIntire Road Intersection project – separately and independently, as these two projects clearly are.


We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet and discuss this very important matter with you.


Thank you.


Sincerely,


X / W. Rod Gentry


W. Rod Gentry

Chairman of the Board of Directors


X / Timothy Hulbert

Timothy Hulbert

President


X / Robert P Hodous


Robert P. Hodous, Esq.

First Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors


The Honorable David Norris and Honorable City Councilors

City of Charlottesville

Charlottesville City Hall

Charlottesville, Virginia 22902


cc: The Chamber Board of Directors

The Honorable Sean Connaughton, Virginia Secretary of Transportation


Friday, March 12, 2010

VDOT pushes to get McIntire Road Extended project underway.

Brent Sprinkel, VDOT's preliminary engineering manager for the McIntire Road Extended project, sent the letter below to Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris requesting that the city help VDOT get a construction contract signed with the low bidder before the end of March, 2010. But, VDOT is apparently not recognizing that the City of Charlottesville is not willing to approve an at-grade intersection of McIntire Road Extended with U.S. Route 250 Bypass at McIntire Road. The confusion appears to me to be VDOT's confusion, not the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Mayor Norris wrote a clarification letter to VDOT dated January 4, 2010 stating clearly that an at-grade intersection at Route 250 Bypass is not approved. The letter states the following:

"To clarify, the official position of the City of Charlottesville, as stated in a letter of 1/18/06 to VDOT (attached) is to only build the McIntire Road Extended with a grade separated interchange."

That is very clear to me. But, VDOT is still asking the City of Charlottesville to state something totally different. They ask that the city agree that:

"In the event that a grade-separated interchange is not built, an appropriately designed at-grade intersection constitutes an acceptable and realistic alternative."

VDOT is not asking for a clarification of some confusion, but asking the city to change or to misrepresent its official position on the intersection so that VDOT can possibly get the US Army Corps of Engineers permit necessary before signing a construction contract for the McIntire Road Extended project. The proposed construction contract will build McIntire Road Extended from Melbourne Road to a southern terminus 775 feet north of Route 250 Bypass. The Corps of Engineers has already stated that such a facility could not get a Corps of Engineers permit as it is not a complete road. I find VDOT's request to be totally inappropriate. The letter that VDOT drafted for the Mayor's consideration is given below.

There is a possibility that city council will consider a resolution relating to this issue at the March 15, 2010 city council meeting. I look forward to attending that meeting to witness the discussion on this matter by council.






Draft


Mr. Robert J. Hume
Chief, Regulatory Office
Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
803 Front Street
Norfolk, VA 23510-1096

Dear Mr. Hume:

The purpose of this letter is to clarify the City's position on the McIntire Road Extended project presently under permit review by the Corps of Engineers and supplement our letter of January 4, 2010 to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In doing so, the City wishes to provide you with a perspective on the desired transportation outcome that we wish to achieve.

The City of Charlottesville has worked with VDOT for nearly four decades to develop the McIntire Road Extended project. As early as 1975, City Council reserved right-of-way through McIntire Park for a road. From the late 1970s through the present, the City has continued to work with VDOT to develop and implement a project that provides a transportation connection through McIntire Park with a southern terminus at Route 250. While the design of the McIntire Road extended project has changed over time, especially with regard to reducing the number of lanes and including provisions for bicyclists and pedestrians, the concept of extending McIntire Road through McIntire Park, from Rt. 250 north to the Meadowcreek Parkway (now under construction) has been supported by every vote taken on the various portions of the project since the mid 1970s.

While the original plan for the road involved an at grade intersection, the City, in an effort to improve traffic flow sought, and in 2005 was able to obtain Federal funding specifically for the construction of a grade-separated interchange to connect the McIntire Road Extended project with Route 250. A grade-separated interchange at Route 250 is the City's preferred option and we are working closely with the Federal Highway Administration to complete preliminary engineering and an Environmental Assessment. This approach merely confirms the City's consistent position for almost 40 years that a complete transportation facility is constructed to connect the Meadowcreek Parkway to Route 250 through McIntire Park. In the event that a grade-separated interchange is not built, an appropriately designed at-grade intersection constitutes an acceptable and realistic alternative.

Sincerely,

Dave Norris
Mayor

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Meadowcreek Parkway opponent makes arguements to panel of VA Supreme Court justices

Check out the Charlottesville Tomorrow article to read the expanded version of the article that appeared in the Daily Progress on Tuesday March 2, 2010.

This article reports on the oral argument presented to a three-justice panel of the Virginia Supreme Court encouraging the court to hear an appeal related to Article VII - Section 9 of the Virginia Constitution and its application to transfer of right-of-way from Charlottesville to VDOT to construct the Meadow Creek Parkway.

Notice of the panel's decision is expected in late March 2010.

Image: The Supreme Court of Virginia