City parkway agreement a step forward

Kudos to Charlottesville City Council for moving this week to renew an agreement necessary to launch the city portion of Meadow Creek Parkway.

The document is a draft memorandum of agreement listing steps Charlottesville will take to minimize the disadvantages of running the road through McIntire Park. It is part of a procedure required before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can issue a permit, which in turn will allow the Commonwealth Transportation Board to award a construction bid.

The memorandum originally was approved in 2006. But because City Council has changed composition, and because opposition to the parkway has persisted in some quarters, Acting City Manager Maurice Jones was reluctant to sign it on behalf of the city without renewed approval. That approval came in a 3-2 vote.

Meanwhile, opposition voices are still calling for delay. Several residents urged the city not to sign the draft, or at least amend it to add more park protections.

Minimizing the road’s impact on the park is important.

But the city has had years already in which to refine the memo and improve protections. The draft has been around for at least four years, from its original approval until its re-approval this week — not to mention the time and attention paid to fine-tuning it before it was first accepted.

At this stage, there should be no reason for further delay.

Unnecessary delay already has been the bane of this project.

The parkway has been under consideration at least since the late 1960s. That’s 40 years spent dithering over a project that could have been serving the public for decades now, had it been built — at a much lower cost, by the way — when originally proposed.

To put that into some perspective, consider the time it took to build some major projects of the past, when technology was less advanced:

„ Even with interminable delays, the Washington Monument took only 36 years to construct.

„ The Eiffel Tower, taller than the Washington Monument, took just two years to build.

„ The overseas highway (now U.S. 1) from mainland Florida to Key West was originally constructed as a railroad line, taking about seven years.

Granted, these are construction times, whereas Meadow Creek Parkway delays can be blamed on pre-construction vacillation. But you get the idea.

City Council has spent much time and effort trying to get every detail right on its portion of the parkway. It has reached the point of diminishing return, where more input seems to render proportionally less gain.

The parkway will provide better access for city residents to points north, will more easily bring commerce downtown, will relieve stress on existing roads, will provide new biking and walking trails. In addition, land has been acquired to offset the portion being taken by the roadway.

Meadow Creek’s advantages far outweigh its disadvantages. It’s time to move on — and move the parkway forward.