Council to get update on transportation planning efforts in Charlottesville 

Charlottesville’s inability to accomplish much in the way of building transportation infrastructure is nothing new. There is a long tradition of planning taking many years before something concrete happens with protracted political arguments along the way. 

For instance, what began as the Meadowcreek Parkway dates back to highway concepts from the 1960’s. Concerned about attracting more drivers to city streets, City Council blocked the parkway for many years and only agreed to proceed in 1999 after demanding 12 conditions needed for their support. According to the minutes of the July 7 meeting that year, that includes limiting the road to two lanes initially as well as a shared-use path for pedestrians. 

Even then, the project never had the full support of Council with opponents making their views known such as a 3-2 vote in March 2009 to approve $10 million in funds to the city’s portion which at the time was called McIntire Road Extended. A string of lawsuits filed by city residents sought to block the roadway and the project would not be complete in 2015. 

Stories around other transportation projects illustrate a community where a need to exhaustively research options can lead to delay and occasionally cancellation. 

• The Belmont Bridge project is nearing completion around fifteen years after the initial kickoff and already I’m hearing complaints from many about the finished product. Council made the choice to replace rather than repair fifteen years ago this month. 
• Millions were spent over years on detailed engineering plans to upgrade West Main Street with new infrastructure and street trees, only for a later City Council to cancel the project and allocate future debt to renovating Buford Middle School instead.
• Charlottesville City Council was awarded funding for its first three Smart Scale projects in the summer of 2016, and none of them has gone to construction after multiple years have been delayed. In all, Council has agreed to cancel three Smart Scale projects including one that would have provided funding to alter the intersection of Preston Avenue and Grady Avenue.
• Council has recently agreed to reallocate funding for sidewalks in the Ridge Street neighborhood that came through the federal Community Development Block Grant program. A total of $215,000 in funds intended for public infrastructure went instead to pay for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to buy refrigeration equipment and make other capital investments. This is consistent with the position of the Public Housing Association of Residents who recently commissioned University of Virginia students to make their case. 

The list could go on. Today there’s a relatively new City Manager who has been with the city less than three years. In May 2022, then-Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders briefed on Council on a series of steps to “reboot” the city’s ability to deliver transportation projects.

Nearly two years later, City Council will have a work session at 4 p.m. Monday on the state of the transportation planning program. The staff report notes that the Comprehensive Plan sets expectations about the city being able to provide safe travel within city limits.

“In recent years, these goals and objectives were met with challenges and opportunities, including transit labor and materials shortages, expansions of the City schools’ parent responsibility zones, and overwhelming backlogs of programmed projects,” reads the staff report.

There are no specifics in the report, but there are two items on the consent agenda (see below) that may come up during the work session. Another challenge is the tendency among community members in this community to fight over the provision of infrastructure. The list could go on but I’ll stick to looking ahead to reporting on how the city attempts to provide infrastructure for a growing community. 

Judging from my email, people get very angry about this stuff. I do not write to make people angry. My goal for writing about transportation is intended to bring people information to quell fears and point out the process that I’ve been covering up close now for a dozen and a half years. I’ll keep going. 

The work session will be held in City Council Chambers. (meeting overview)

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the April 15, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.