Emotions run high on bypass' revival

Albemarle County resident Bill Arrington is furious that the Board of Supervisors has revived the controversial U.S. 29 Western Bypass.

“It’s plain-old crazy,” said Arrington, who lives in the path of the proposed road. “It’s a bunch of supposedly civilized, wise and smart individuals acting crazy.”

The bypass’ proposed route runs through an area where nine houses sit in the Squirrel Ridge subdivision where Arrington lives, though his house is safe. Arrington said he wondered why the bypass was back on the county’s radar.

“That was supposed to have been dead 15 or 20 years ago … If something had been determined to be useless, why keep trying to make it work,” he said last week.

Squirrel Ridge is in the Samuel Miller District, which is represented on the Board of Supervisors by Rodney S. Thomas. Thomas was one of the four supervisors who voted in favor of the project June 8.

“If this road does happen, it will be one of the best things that has happened to Albemarle County,” Thomas said.

As for the late-night vote on the project that has some citizens fuming, Thomas said there was no other way to get the vote done. According to Thomas, Lindsay G. Dorrier Jr., the tie-breaking vote, was late to the meeting because of traffic. As Dorrier wasn’t at the meeting when it started, he had to wait until the end to add the bypass to the agenda.

Dorrier adding an item at the last minute meant the supervisors had to suspend a previous rule that said action items must be added to the agenda at the beginning of a meeting.

“I would have much rather it come up at 6 o’clock, but that couldn’t have happened,” Thomas said.

Cole Sandridge, another resident of Squirrel Ridge, said he disapproves of the supervisors’ late-night vote on the project.

“I am so disappointed in our supervisors, I don’t know what to do,” said Sandridge, who called the vote underhanded.

Despite harsh words from some of his constituents, Thomas continues to support the road.

“I’m sorry these people in Squirrel Ridge are being affected by it,” Thomas said last week. “But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a road built.”

Supervisor Ann H Mallek, of the White Hall District, wasn’t happy with how the vote happened, either.

“There are good reasons you don’t let three people make decisions for 100,000 people and move millions of dollars around at their whim,” she said. “I lose on majority sometimes, I understand that. That’s completely different than when something is jammed through when nobody is looking.”

Dorrier, a Democrat, said he voted yes on the project after a conversation with state Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton. In that conversation, Dorrier said Connaughton assured him that Albemarle would get full funding for the bypass, a widening of U.S. 29 and an extension of Berkmar Drive.

“I realize there’s opposition to it from people along the route, but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages,” Dorrier said.

Arrington’s neighbor Bill Massie said he thinks the Charlottesville area needs a bypass, but the Western Bypass isn’t it. To Massie, the current route isn’t long enough to solve the region’s congestion problems.

“It just seems like an awful lot of money for a very short bypass,” Massie said. “I’d like to see one go up north of Ruckersville.” Currently, the plan is for a 6.1-mile road beginning near Hollymead Town Center and ending with an interchange at Ivy Road.

Massie, a retired electrical engineer who has lived in the area since 1980, thinks the current plan is out of date. With more traffic north of the Rivanna River now than there was 20 years ago, Massie said he doesn’t think the planned route will help.

Jack Jouett District Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker voted against the bypass, which would run through his district. According to Rooker, solutions like the half-finished Hillsdale Drive extension will be far cheaper than the bypass and nearly as effective.

“The public money for [Hillsdale Drive] is less than $10 million and it will take 12,000 vehicles a day off 29,” Rooker said. “The cost of the bypass is around $250 million, and will take 15,000 vehicles off 29.”

James Rich, who represents Charlottesville on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, agrees.

“After $300 million of expenditures, Route 29 will still be at an F level of service,” he said. “You’re spending a ton of money, degrading the quality of life in an important area of the community, and what help is it?”

Rich is also confused as to where funding for the project will come from. Though the CTB would have to appropriate the funds, Rich said he hasn’t been briefed on the source of the money. Without knowing where the money is coming from, Rich said he wouldn’t support the project.

“I’m just not prepared to vote for that kind of funding,” he said.

Connaughton has told Charlottesville’s City Council that the money will not be taken from the area’s existing transportation projects, including the Belmont Bridge replacement and Hillsdale Drive extension.

Samuel Miller District Supervisor Duane Snow, who voted in favor of the bypass, said Connaughton told him approval of the bypass would help funnel funds to those projects.

“A few months ago, Secretary Connaughton met with [Thomas] and I, and asked if we’d be open to talking about the Western Bypass again,” Snow said. “ We said there were other things that needed done before that. He said, ‘What if those things were done?’”

Snow said he supports the bypass in part because of how effective the U.S. 250 Bypass has been for the area.

“Just imagine for a minute that you’re driving from Pantops to Barracks Road without the 250 Bypass. What would we do without that bypass?” Snow asked. “I feel like we need the 29 bypass as much as we needed that road.”

Rooker said he is opposes the bypass because it will be destructive to neighborhoods, pose an environmental threat to the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir and take 15 acres of land from Albemarle High School.

“The project has a devastating effect on my district,” Rooker said.

Rooker’s opposition to the project has sparked controversy with proponents of the Western Bypass because his house is close to the road’s proposed path.

According to County Attorney Larry Davis, however, Rooker’s opposition does not represent a conflict of interest.

“As long as he’s a member of a group of affected people, he’s OK … As long as he says that he has that interest, and declares that he can fairly, objectively and in the public interest participate,” Davis said.

Rooker said he is primarily concerned with his district.

“I’m elected in the Jack Jouett District, and the highway would have more impact in the Jack Jouett District than in any other district,” Rooker said. “I certainly will try and be fair and objective in any decisions I make.”

The public will get a chance to express their opinions on the project July 14, when the matter goes before the Metropolitan Planning Organization. Another public hearing before the MPO is scheduled for July 27.

“[The public] will have plenty of opportunity to chastise me, or chastise the four of us, at the July 14 meeting,” Thomas said.