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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02192014actions 1 ACTIONS Board of Supervisors Meeting of February 19, 2014 February 20, 2014 AGENDA ITEM/ACTION ASSIGNMENT PODCAST 1. Call to Order.  Meeting was called to order at 4:07 p.m., by the Chair, Ms. Dittmar. All BOS members were present. Also present were Tom Foley, Larry Davis, Ella Jordan and Travis Morris. Listen Discussion on resolution 4. Public Hearing to receive comments regarding the proposed Route 29 Western Bypass and to consider possible Board action.  By a vote of 5:1 (Boyd), ADOPTED resolution. Clerk: Forward copy of signed resolution to County Attorney, Community Development, VDoT, Governor McAuliffe, Secretary of Transportation Layne and Commonwealth Transportation Board. (Attachment 1) 5. From the Board: Matters not Listed on the Agenda.  There were none. 6. Adjourn to February 21, 2014, 11:00 a.m., Room 241.  At 10:53 p.m., the Board adjourned until February 21, 2014. ewj/tom Attachment 1 – Resolution 2 ATTACHMENT 1 RESOLUTION WHEREAS, Albemarle County recognizes the multiple purposes that US Route 29 serves as it traverses the Charlottesville/Albemarle area, functioning as an important corridor for regional as well as local traffic; and WHEREAS, the regional importance of US Route 29 is demonstrated by its designation as a Corridor of Statewide Significance and as a Highway of National Significance, and regional travelers using US 29 to pass through the City of Charlottesville and northern Albemarle County to reach destinations outside the Charlottesville Metro Area represent approximately 10 percent of the daily trips on this portion of the highway; and WHEREAS, the local importance of US Route 29 is demonstrated by the fac t that the vast majority of trips on US 29 in Charlottesville and northern Albemarle County are local trips traveling to or from the employment, retail, and residential areas located along the corridor; and WHEREAS, the multiple purposes that the US 29 North Corridor serves in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area have led Albemarle County, working with the City of Charlottesville and the Virginia Department of Transportation (“VDOT”), the Charlottesville -Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (“MPO”), and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (“TJPDC”), to develop a cost-effective transportation strategy for addressing local and regional traffic on US 29 by combining selected improvements to US 29 with improvements to a network of parallel and local streets; and WHEREAS, a crucial step in the development of this transportation strategy was initiated with the 29H250 Intersections Studies completed by the TJPDC, the MPO, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and VDOT in 2003 and 2004; and WHEREAS, the transportation strategy from the 29H250 Intersections Studies was then extended to the entire 10.75-mile long portion of the US 29 Corridor from the Route 250 Bypass to the Greene County boundary with the development of: (1) the US 29 North Corridor Transportation Study Final Report that was developed by the TJPDC, the MPO, VDOT, and Albemarle County and that was unanimously approved by the MPO Policy Board in 2008, and (2) the Places29 Master Plan that was a joint project of Albemarle County, VDOT, and the TJPDC, in cooperation with the City of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, which the Albemarle Board of Supervisors unanimously approved in February 2011; and WHEREAS, the transportation strategy that was developed for the US 29 North Corridor offers multiple transportation, land use, and economic benefits by providing additional capacity on Route 29 and by providing alternative routes for shorter distance trips in the corridor via an augmented network of parallel and local connecting streets; and WHEREAS, the benefits of the transportation strategy include preserving and increasing capacity on US 29 for longer distance trips, enabling the state and Albemarle County to maximize the efficiency of the transportation infrastructure that is already in place, and fostering transportation and land use patterns that encourage more trips to be made by transit, walking, and biking; and WHEREAS, the transportation strategy recognizes that the large movements of turning and crossing traffic at the intersections of Rio Road/US 29 and Hydraulic Road/US 29 can cause substantial peak period queues to develop at these locations, and numerous transportation studies conducted over the past decades, including traffic studies conducted as part of the National Environmental Policy Act analysis of the proposed Route 29 western bypass of Charlottesville, have indicated that significant improvements to these intersections will be necessary for traffic to function at a desirable level of service on US 29 regardless of whether the proposed western bypass is constructed; and WHEREAS, in recognition of the challenges presented by the limited availability of resources to undertake transportation improvements, the Places29 Master Plan articulated a set of “essential transportation projects” as the highest priorities, each of which help to advance the transportation strategy espoused by Albemarle County and its partners in the studies and plans referenced above: ● Expanding the southbound-to-westbound ramp at the US 29/250 Bypass with an auxiliary lane to the Barracks Road off-ramp; constructing a fourth southbound lane on US 29 between Hydraulic Road and the US 250 interchange; and 3 constructing a westbound merge lane on the 250 Bypass at the Barracks Road interchange (collectively known as the “Best Buy ramp project”); ● Widening US 29 to six lanes from Polo Grounds Road north to Town Center Drive; ● Construction of Berkmar Drive Extended (including a bridge across the Rivanna River); ● Construction of the Hillsdale Drive Extension; and ● Enhanced transit service; and WHEREAS, Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville, and VDOT recently committed to installing adaptive control technology at traffic signals along Albemarle County and Charlottesville’s portion of the US Route 29 North Corridor extending north to Airport Road, a system that should significantly reduce travel time in the corridor and should be in place later in 2014; and WHEREAS, opposition to the proposed western bypass has long been intense in t he Charlottesville/Albemarle area due to its excessive financial cost (currently estimated at $244.5 million) and the significant harm it would have on the community if constructed, including the impacts of noise and air pollution on students and teachers at six schools located in close proximity to the proposed route, severe impacts to ten established neighborhoods, impacts to five watersheds through which it would be built (Moores Creek, Meadow Creek, Ivy Creek, the South Fork Rivanna River, and the Rivanna River), impacts to the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir that is a primary source of drinking water for County and City residents, and the harm to an area of historic African-American communities around Ivy Creek; and WHEREAS, as part of a multi-year, $1.5 million study completed in 2011 that VDOT conducted of the entire Route 29 Corridor in Virginia, from the North Carolina state line to Interstate 66 in Prince William County, VDOT determined that the proposed western bypass is not an effective option to se rve corridor-wide trips, and the Places29 Master Plan recognized that the western bypass is not a substitute for improvements within the corridor; and WHEREAS, from 1983 until June 8, 2011, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors consistently opposed construction of the western bypass or made clear that the bypass was a much lower priority than direct improvements to Route 29, and the MPO consistently voted from 1996 until 2011 not to allow federal construction funds to be used for the project; and WHEREAS, following an unannounced discussion of the proposed western bypass and a suspension of the Board’s Rules of Procedure to allow a vote on an item that had not been included on the agenda, the Board of Supervisors, without a public hearing, voted 4 -2 to change Albemarle County’s longstanding position of being in opposition to the construction of the western bypass on June 8, 2011; and WHEREAS, the MPO amended its Transportation Improvement Program and its Long Range Transportation Plan, both in divided votes, in July 2011 to remove the prohibition on federal construction funds being allocated to the western bypass; and WHEREAS, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing on February 19, 2014 for the purpose of taking public comment on the proposed western bypass and priorities for the Route 29 corridor and reconsidering its policy on those items; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Albemarle County hereby re-endorses and again prioritizes the strategy set forth in the US 29 North Corridor Transportation Study Final Report and the transportation improvements set forth in the Places29 Master Plan, including the set of priority projects discussed herein; and FURTHER RESOVED, that, for the above reasons, Albemarle County readopts and reestablishes its longstanding opposition to the proposed western bypass; and FURTHER RESOLVED, that Albemarle County requests Governor McAuliffe, Secretary of Transportation Layne, and the Commonwealth Transportation Board to redistribute funding curren tly allocated to the proposed western bypass to the following projects, and to advance their completion as expeditiously as possible: ● Berkmar Drive Extended (including a bridge across the Rivanna River); ● Any additional expenses for widening US 29 to six lanes from Polo Grounds Road north to Town Center Drive to cover the portion between Polo Grounds 4 Road and Ashwood Boulevard; ● The Hillsdale Drive Extension and the Best Buy ramp project, if additional funds are needed for their completion; and ● A study of various options for improving the Rio Road/US 29 and Hydraulic Road/US 29 intersections; and FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution is not a request by Albemarle County or the Charlottesville Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization for termination of the proposed western bypass within the purview of Va. Code § 33.1-12 or Va. Code § 33.1-223.2:13.