In a divided vote, MPO Policy Board moves forward with two Smart Scale projects without city support

For decades, the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County disagreed over a plan to build a north-south roadway known as the Meadowcreek Parkway. City Council only agreed to proceed with what we now know as the John Warner Parkway after winning a dozen concessions such as limiting the roadway to two lanes and requiring a design that kept traffic moving slowly.

Now some in the city are seeking to influence decisions about future projects in Albemarle that some say perpetuates a car-centric culture.

On April 22, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board was set to endorse four applications for funding through the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale program.

A member of Charlottesville Planning Commission asked the Policy Board to drop two projects that would extend the on-ramps on U.S. 250 at Ivy Road because he said they were not compatible with the federally-mandated long-range transportation plan last adopted by the MPO Policy Board in May 2024.

“Spending $24 million on highway widening projects that have not been identified as priority needs in any of our plans and do not contribute to our region’s vision for the future is not good planning practice,” said Danny Yoder.

Smart Scale runs every two years and bodies like MPO Policy Board can make four applications each cycle, as can each city and county.

VDOT staff work with applicants to determine which ones are likely to qualify for funding in a system that issues scores on how well each project would theoretically address criteria such as improving public safety, reducing congestion, and increasing economic development.

The MPO Policy Board also has a technical committee that includes Yoder as a member. That group made recommendations in April and unanimously voted to recommend moving forward with an application to convert Exit 120 at Interstate 64 into a diverging diamond as well as a project to alter the on-ramp from northbound U.S. 29 / 250 onto Barracks Road.

City representatives took issue with two projects with these descriptions from the MPO staff report:

• “Old Ivy Rd On-Ramp/Leonard Sandridge Rd Off-Ramp Aux. Lane – This project will include: increasing the length of the on-ramp from Old Ivy Road onto US 29 NB/US 250 EB and tying it together with the off-ramp at Leonard Sandridge Road; adding an additional NB on-ramp lane from Old Ivy Road”
• “US 29/250 SB Off-Ramp Extension to Old Ivy Rd – This project is a recommendation from a Round 2 Pipeline Study. It will include increasing the length of the off-ramp extension on Ivy Road from US 29 SB/US 250 WB at Old Ivy Road.”

The MPO is under the umbrella of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District and the transportation director is Taylor Jenkins.

“For the Old Ivy Road on ramp and Leonard Sandridge Road off ramp auxiliary Lane project. The Technical Committee voted to recommend policy Board adoption of the resolution, though it was not a unanimous vote,” Jenkins said. “For the Old Ivy Road southbound off ramp extension, the committee deferred taking action on making a recommendation until their June Technical Committee meeting.”

The long range transportation plan includes a list of projects that are identified as community visions. This list is described as “constrained” and is limited to those that have a reasonable chance of being funded over the next twenty years. Take a look at the full list here.

Jenkins said the two projects are eligible for funding.

“Included on our constrained project list, there is a line for Ivy Road corridor improvements that is listed in there,” Jenkins said. “So even if it’s not specifically this Ivy Road ramp. Ivy Road corridor improvements are listed as a priority in the constrained project list for the MPO.

The five voting members on the MPO Policy Board are two City Councilors and two members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors as well as Sean Nelson, the administrator of VDOT’s Culpeper District.

At the April 22 meeting, votes were first taken on Albemarle’s four applications, Charlottesville’s single application and two of the four MPO projects. These votes were unanimous and were followed by a discussion of the other two started by Councilor Jen Fleisher.

“We’re just really thinking that these two projects in particular give us the chance to discuss, an opportunity to review how we get here to these decisions for Smart Scale,” Fleisher said.

Fleisher said she could not support the Leonard Sandridge offramp project because she said it would have impacts to the Rivanna Trail during construction.

Councilor Natalie Oschrin said she made a commitment when running for office that she would not support any additional parking lots nor any road-widening projects.

Nelson said he welcomed the conversation about how to improve the Smart Scale process but said the two disputed projects came out of a pipeline study to recommend overall solutions to improve the U.S. 250 corridor. Take a look at the final report here.

“There are lots of recommendations within that pipeline study,” Nelson said. “These are two that were in there. These are also two that the public sentiment in the survey was really high. So there is a need there.”

To qualify for Smart Scale, projects have to meet a need in the Virginia Transportation Plan, or VTRANS. Nelson said these two check that box.

Supervisor Ned Gallaway, the chair of the MPO Policy Board, said the disagreements over the projects were raised fairly late in the process. He said he would welcome a larger discussion about the regional process going forward but said the Board of Supervisors had been briefed on the applications at their meeting on March 4.

“There’s no time to maneuver around these applications,” Gallaway said. “The decision would simply be to advance them or not advance them. From the county’s perspective, the projects being advanced reflect direction from our full Board of Supervisors at our March 4th meeting.”

A vote on the northbound ramp to move forward was 3-2 with the two Councilors voting no. Both Fleisher and Oschrin wanted the Technical Committee to weigh in on the other project, but a vote was called and the result was again 3-2 to move forward.

Albemarle Supervisors will officially endorse their slate of four projects on June 17. Charlottesville City Council will be asked to endorse a single project on July 20. The final application deadline is August 3.

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