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This project was the road that Dogwood Developing had counted on to bring people to the Town of Chancellorsville. Guess it was a good thing that idea was vetoed......
Project finally dead?
December 13, 2003 1:09 am
By EDIE GROSS
The Outer Connector isn't dead yet, but it's pretty darn close.
The region's transportation policy board voted this week to remove any mention of the controversial parkway from its 20-year road plan.
As a general rule, projects not listed in the region's plan go unfunded. And no money means no Outer Connector, which was estimated to cost more than $150 million.
Dave Ogle, Fredericksburg District administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation and a supporter of the Outer Connector, hesitated to pronounce the project dead and gone. But he wasn't optimistic either.
"It's in a rather permanent state of slumber," he said.
VDOT and other supporters had touted the Outer Connector as a way to decrease congestion on Interstate 95, U.S. 17 and State Route 3 west.
If built, the parkway would start from the new interchange at I-95 and State Route 627 in Stafford County, loop west and south across U.S. 17 and the Rappahannock River, and end at Route 3 in Spotsylvania near the Mullins farm.
But opponents attacked the project on several fronts, saying it would cross a pristine section of the Rappahannock River, come too close to the Chancellorsville battlefield and encourage sprawl along western parts of Route 3 and U.S. 17.
While the Board of Supervisors in Stafford County generally supported the project, elected officials in Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg recently voted against it. All three communities are represented on the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, which voted Wednesday to remove the Outer Connector from its long-range transportation plans.
Spotsylvania Supervisor Hap Connors, a member of FAMPO, said he worried the parkway would be too expensive and promote too much growth.
"I share the concern that this beltway would be a magnet for sprawl and would litter our countryside with strip malls," he said. "There's nothing I can do today to guarantee forever that there will not be sprawl out there [on Route 3]. The one thing I can do is not approve something that will be a magnet for sprawl."
Ogle and others with VDOT had argued that the road would not cause sprawl if county officials controlled the zoning around it.
"I can appreciate to some extent what he [Connors] is saying, but at the same time, the decisions made by the Board of Supervisors have contributed to the traffic we're experiencing," Ogle said. "You've tied our hands on addressing the congestion we're currently experiencing, so to continue to blame VDOT for that issue is inappropriate."
Fredericksburg City Councilman Scott Howson, who also voted to remove the Outer Connector from the area's plans, said elected officials are ready to study other alternatives for fixing congestion in this area.
"Now we can actually sit down and do some real planning. This project has dominated every discussion," Howson said. "My argument against the Outer Connector is that nobody's ever actually shown it would relieve congestion on Route 3 or I-95. If we're going to spend a lot of money on a project, let's choose a project that works on the problems we know exist."
VDOT has spent about $5 million over the past several years studying possible routes for the parkway and the environmental impact of the project.
The agency had planned to spend another $300,000 to finish the study before forwarding results to the Federal Highway Administration, which would have to sign off on the project.
This week's decision by the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization brings a halt to those plans, Ogle said. It's up to the state transportation board to decide how to spend the remaining money.
Conceivably, a future metropolitan planning organization made of different elected officials could resurrect the Outer Connector. Or a private company could take on the project--if it also wanted to take on the local governments that are against it.
But it's likely that discussion about the Outer Connector has ceased for a while.
"It's as dead as it can be right now," said Howson.
Project finally dead?
December 13, 2003 1:09 am
The Outer Connector isn't dead yet, but it's pretty darn close.
The region's transportation policy board voted this week to remove any mention of the controversial parkway from its 20-year road plan.
As a general rule, projects not listed in the region's plan go unfunded. And no money means no Outer Connector, which was estimated to cost more than $150 million.
Dave Ogle, Fredericksburg District administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation and a supporter of the Outer Connector, hesitated to pronounce the project dead and gone. But he wasn't optimistic either.
"It's in a rather permanent state of slumber," he said.
VDOT and other supporters had touted the Outer Connector as a way to decrease congestion on Interstate 95, U.S. 17 and State Route 3 west.
If built, the parkway would start from the new interchange at I-95 and State Route 627 in Stafford County, loop west and south across U.S. 17 and the Rappahannock River, and end at Route 3 in Spotsylvania near the Mullins farm.
But opponents attacked the project on several fronts, saying it would cross a pristine section of the Rappahannock River, come too close to the Chancellorsville battlefield and encourage sprawl along western parts of Route 3 and U.S. 17.
While the Board of Supervisors in Stafford County generally supported the project, elected officials in Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg recently voted against it. All three communities are represented on the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, which voted Wednesday to remove the Outer Connector from its long-range transportation plans.
Spotsylvania Supervisor Hap Connors, a member of FAMPO, said he worried the parkway would be too expensive and promote too much growth.
"I share the concern that this beltway would be a magnet for sprawl and would litter our countryside with strip malls," he said. "There's nothing I can do today to guarantee forever that there will not be sprawl out there [on Route 3]. The one thing I can do is not approve something that will be a magnet for sprawl."
Ogle and others with VDOT had argued that the road would not cause sprawl if county officials controlled the zoning around it.
"I can appreciate to some extent what he [Connors] is saying, but at the same time, the decisions made by the Board of Supervisors have contributed to the traffic we're experiencing," Ogle said. "You've tied our hands on addressing the congestion we're currently experiencing, so to continue to blame VDOT for that issue is inappropriate."
Fredericksburg City Councilman Scott Howson, who also voted to remove the Outer Connector from the area's plans, said elected officials are ready to study other alternatives for fixing congestion in this area.
"Now we can actually sit down and do some real planning. This project has dominated every discussion," Howson said. "My argument against the Outer Connector is that nobody's ever actually shown it would relieve congestion on Route 3 or I-95. If we're going to spend a lot of money on a project, let's choose a project that works on the problems we know exist."
VDOT has spent about $5 million over the past several years studying possible routes for the parkway and the environmental impact of the project.
The agency had planned to spend another $300,000 to finish the study before forwarding results to the Federal Highway Administration, which would have to sign off on the project.
This week's decision by the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan Planning Organization brings a halt to those plans, Ogle said. It's up to the state transportation board to decide how to spend the remaining money.
Conceivably, a future metropolitan planning organization made of different elected officials could resurrect the Outer Connector. Or a private company could take on the project--if it also wanted to take on the local governments that are against it.
But it's likely that discussion about the Outer Connector has ceased for a while.
"It's as dead as it can be right now," said Howson.
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