School Board OKs parkway plan

A potential obstacle to the Meadowcreek Parkway was removed Thursday when the Charlottesville School Board voted 4-1 to donate approximately 8.5 acres at Charlottesville High School to the Virginia Department of Transportation for the long-planned project.
Colette Blount was the lone dissenter. “To even think about giving away land that we might need in the future is not good judgment,” Blount said.
Board member Juandiego Wade, a senior transportation planner for Albemarle County, recused himself from the discussion and vote. Alvin Edwards said he was not feeling well and left the meeting before the vote.
The decision means that CHS will lose a sports practice field. About 3.7 acres of the donated land will be returned to the school after construction of the parkway.
When complete, the limited-access, two-lane parkway would connect U.S. 250 and McIntire Road in Charlottesville with East Rio Road in Albemarle County.
The board attached numerous conditions and expectations to the land donation. These included that the parkway not be opened until the entire project is complete; that landscaping be done to screen the parkway; that a 25 mph speed limit be instituted near school property; that replacement field space be provided for CHS; and that safe and efficient means of passage for bicycles and pedestrians be created and maintained at the intersection of the parkway and Melbourne Road, as well as around CHS and the Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center.
The board also required that truck traffic be prohibited along the entire parkway, and that replacement parkland be placed in a conservation easement to prevent future development.
School Board Chairman Ned Michie voted in favor of the donation because he believes that the School Board should not make transportation decisions.
“I have and have always had mixed feelings about the parkway,” he said. “But the City Council has decided that it wants this road.”
Kathy Galvin repeatedly lamented the lack of east-west pedestrian crossings over or under the parkway but ended up voting for the resolution because of the attached conditions.
Several city residents came to Thursday’s board meeting to implore board members to vote against the donation.
Some speakers questioned the wisdom of giving up the land for nothing in return.
“Why give the land away if there are no benefits?” asked Claire Thompson, a student at Buford Middle School.
John Cruickshank, representing the Sierra Club, said that the parkway would increase traffic and pollution in the city and destroy irreplaceable parkland.
The land to be donated is legally deeded to Charlottesville, but city officials decided to ask the School Board to sign off on the plan because the property was acquired in 1982 for school use.
The City Council is slate to vote Monday on whether to convey the land easement to VDOT.