Corps sees parkway as divided projects

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is treating Charlottesville’s portion of the Meadowcreek Parkway and the parkway’s planned interchange as separate projects, contrary to the hopes of opponents of the controversial road.
The federal agency’s interpretation of the parkway’s status comes on the heels of a letter the corps sent to the Virginia Department of Transportation about the city’s .6-mile project, which will run through McIntire Park. In the Thursday letter, an agency official wrote that the plans being reviewed do not show a logical terminus, and evaluation for a necessary permit will resume only when that information has been provided.

Parkway opponents have long argued that the city’s portion of the parkway, Albemarle County’s portion and the interchange are all one project. They have been hoping that the army will share their view, which would increase federal scrutiny, create a stumbling block for the project and — they hope — possibly save the park.
Corps spokesman Mark Haviland said that VDOT has indicated all along that the road’s terminus would be the U.S. 250 Bypass or an interchange, but current plans only show the road ending in the middle of McIntire Park.
“It has to be a complete plan, and as of right now it’s not,” Haviland said, adding, “Before we issue a permit we have to know where the road will terminate.”
As of right now, the road and interchange are not connected in the corps’ view, but that is subject to regulatory review, said Haviland, who works with the corps’ Norfolk district.
“We see them as two different projects because … they’re funded differently and they’re different agencies that are the leads on these projects.”

It has not yet been definitively decided whether the permit will be issued or if the proposed interchange is a suitable terminus for the thoroughfare. The evaluation is being done to determine whether a box culvert can be built to allow the road to pass over a stream.
The parkway would use a grade-separated interchange — mostly financed by federal funds — to connect the U.S. 250 Bypass at McIntire Road in Charlottesville to East Rio Road in Albemarle County.

Parkway critics have argued that the project was illegally segmented to skirt federal environmental protection laws. The activists have said the Army Corps of Engineers’ letter bolsters their argument that the 2-mile parkway — which includes Albemarle’s portion that began construction in February — should be seen as one project and therefore be subject to the same regulatory standards.
“It appears to us that they have agreed with our argument,” said Peter Kleeman, a parkway opponent and member of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park. Kleeman said he understood the letter to mean that the corps does not see the city’s section as a standalone road.
“That’s not what they say explicitly but that’s how we interpret it,” he said.
Haviland said the corps is not involved in the interchange project. Rather, the Federal Highway Administration is overseeing it because of the federal dollars being used to construct it.

The city’s portion of the road “is the only project we are looking at,” he said. But, in its letter, the corps also wrote that VDOT’s updated plans must include any additional impacts on U.S waters, and Haviland said that those impacts included any consequences arising from the road as well as the interchange.
VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter said the agency has begun to compile the information and will provide it to the corps as soon as possible, though he could not say how long it would take.
“I don’t think we see it as a significant obstacle,” Hatter said.