Albemarle plan maps U.S. 29 development

After three-and-a-half years of work, Albemarle County is poised to wrap up a $1.25 million planning project that will shape the growth of the busy U.S. 29 corridor north of Charlottesville for decades to come.

The Places29 Framework Master Plan — a joint effort by the county and the Virginia Department of Transportation — aims to guide the future of public and private development of the 14.5-square-mile portion of the county that runs along an 11-mile stretch of U.S. 29 from the U.S. 250 Bypass to the Greene County line.

The document lays out a 20-year vision for new transportation projects, community facilities, land use and much more for the U.S. 29 north area, which had a population of 22,409 residents in 2007 and is projected to grow to 29,632 by 2030.

“It is not really about allowing more development. It’s about planning for better development,” said Mark Graham, director of the county’s Department of Community Development. “It’s more about how do we better regulate how you live, work and shop?”

The Places29 project has its share of skeptics — most notably certain business leaders and advocates of the U.S. 29 corridor — who say its anticipated recommendations are far too costly, unrealistic and would not actually improve the area’s quality of life or business growth.

“There’s a quarter of a billion dollars worth of transportation projects in this plan,” said Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum, a local business advocacy group. “My question is, ‘Where is this money going to come from?’”

Places29 envisions a more urbanized U.S. 29 corridor with an array of housing, shopping, workplaces and recreation offerings.

“These neighborhoods and their centers will be pedestrian-oriented and mixed-use; they will offer a variety of housing choices, high-quality retail, office and employment opportunities,” says the draft document’s vision statement. “They will be connected by an attractive, efficient and accessible multimodal transportation system. Integrated into this urban-style development, parks and open spaces will provide a sense of respite and contribute to an overall quality of life.”

So far, six of the draft Places29 document’s eight chapters have been completed.

A transportation study conducted as part of the project was finished in August. Since then, California-based consultant Community Design + Architecture has continued work on the seventh chapter, which will outline design principles for the area’s entrance corridors.

And the county staff has been putting the finishing touches on the highly anticipated eighth chapter, which will focus on how and when the project’s priorities — including several pricey transportation projects — would be implemented.

David Benish, the county’s chief of planning, said the final two chapters would most likely be presented to the county’s Planning Commission in late January or early February. The Planning Commission will give feedback and make a recommendation at some point in 2009.

While the process is running roughly six months behind schedule, Benish said, it has not exceeded its budget. The loss of key officials — such as Harrison Rue, former director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission — contributed to delays. “We want to make it as good as we can get it as quickly as possible,” Benish said.

The delays have been frustrating to those trying to follow closely the complicated, yet deeply important, Places29 project, said Mike McGowan, a former owner of Shopper’s World on U.S. 29 and past president of the North Charlottesville Business Council.

“It’s been a long, choppy process that has made it hard for people to keep up with it,” he said. “ … The breaking news here is that it’s only going to be one more month late, if that is in fact true.”

Dozens of projects included

Places29’s transportation component lists dozens of projects to occur in the short-term (one to five years), mid-term (five to 10 years) and long-term (11 to 20 years). According to the report, design and construction of all of the transportation projects would cost taxpayers an estimated $290.3 million and property owners an estimated $21.9 million.

The report’s cost estimates do not include right-of-way acquisition or utilities costs, both of which would almost certainly increase each project’s price tag by a substantial sum.

While the implementation chapter has not yet been released, interviews with several county officials have revealed the Top 5 transportation projects in Places29.

Two priorities would be to build single point urban interchanges — which are essentially overpasses — at the U.S. 29 intersections with Rio Road and Hydraulic Road. Construction of the Rio Road interchange would cost an estimated $35 million, while the Hydraulic Road project would cost an estimated $33 million.

Another priority would be to widen to six lanes the section of U.S. 29 between Polo Grounds Road and Towne Center Drive at Hollymead Town Center. The project, which would cost an estimated $15.06 million to build, would make that part of the highway safer. In May, a 16-year-old girl was killed at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Ashwood Boulevard, just outside the Forest Lakes subdivision.

Yet another priority would be to extend Berkmar Drive past the Doubletree Hotel Charlottesville, across a bridge over the Rivanna River and ending at Hollymead Town Center. Building the road, called Berkmar Drive Extended, would cost an estimated $10.23 million. The bridge over the South Fork of the Rivanna would cost an estimated $150,000 to study and $14.91 million to construct. By extending Berkmar Drive, county officials said, much of the local traffic would opt to take it as a parallel route rather than U.S. 29.

The final priority would be transit improvements throughout the northern U.S. 29 corridor. While no overall cost estimate has yet been published, one major piece would be Bus Rapid Transit service, which has been estimated to cost $16.5 million to implement.

A 30-year work zone?

With a total transportation price tag of $312 million, some critics have suggested that such a vision will be purely academic.

“This community doesn’t want to build roads. It wants to study roads,” said Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum. “If I sound frustrated, I am. There are real traffic issues that we’re facing.”

Williamson added that he views Places29 as a “half-billion-dollar boondoggle that, at best, will maintain the current level of traffic frustration and create a 30-year work zone on our most productive commercial corridor.”

Transportation funding has been drying up in Virginia and is expected to continue its decline. Over the next six years, transportation revenue is projected to fall by $2.6 billion, leading to additional cuts and transportation project reductions across the state.

Charlottesville and Albemarle County officials are attempting to form a regional transit authority to oversee an expansion of the bus system and other transportation projects. The officials must win approval of the plan from the General Assembly. Even with that permission, however, they would also need new authority to increase taxes to pay for such local projects.

“There’s a quarter of a billion dollars worth of transportation projects in this plan,” Williamson said. “My question is, ‘Where is this money going to come from?’”

County spokeswoman Lee Catlin said one possible new revenue source for the projects listed in Places29 might be President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to invest in infrastructure projects around the country to stimulate the economy, create 2.5 million jobs and replace aging facilities.

Whether the county can tap into Obama’s funding or not, Catlin said, money will eventually be allocated and the county must be ready to invest in priority projects.

“The whole idea of planning is to be quick on your feet,” she said. “You need to be ready to go as soon as money becomes available.”

Critics, including the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s chairman, Chris Lee, say they believe some of Places29’s cost estimates are low-balled.

As an example, they cite the project’s $33 million estimated cost for the Hydraulic Road intersection’s overpass. A 2003 planning study called 29H250 found that a similar project at that intersection would cost closer to $89.2 million, when right-of-way acquisition and utility costs are factored in.

“We’re disappointed that the cost estimates are so much different now than they were just a short while ago,” Lee said. “We’re concerned that these cost estimates might not represent the true cost of the projects. We want to ensure transparency and integrity in the system.”

County officials said the report’s cost estimates were supplied and verified by VDOT and are considered a reliable representation of how much such projects will cost.

Protecting area’s economy

Some business leaders, such as the North Charlottesville Business Council’s president, L.F. Wood, owner of the Putt-Putt on East Rio Road, are concerned that Places29 seems to emphasize the future of U.S. 29 as an expressway or thoroughfare, rather than an urban boulevard that is safe for pedestrians and bicyclists.

However, he added, his group is holding off on supporting or denouncing Places29 until it is finished.

“We’ve got to take a look at it and decide if it’s going to have a positive or negative effect,” he said. “We will be studying it. So far, though, what we have seen is not very promising.”

Wood pointed out that a study by the Free Enterprise Forum found that businesses in the U.S. 29 North area employ some 20,000 people and spend upward of $800 million in payroll each year. Any plan for the U.S. 29 corridor’s future must aim to protect that economy, he said.

County officials said they do not plan to do anything to hurt local businesses, including not completely cutting off access to or visibility of retailers near major transportation projects. In fact, they said, Places29 aims to boost business.

“We don’t want to bite the hand that feeds us,” Graham said. “That area is our economic engine.”