Route 29 Congestion Solution Stalls
Hundreds of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents converged upon the county’s 401 McIntire Rd. office building on the night of Friday, February 4, to voice their concerns to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors over the proposed grade-separated interchange (GSI) or expressway at the intersection of Rio Road and Route 29. The crowd quickly dwarfed the seating area in Lane Auditorium, forcing officials to open up the balcony. Only two of the 27 listed speakers spoke in favor of the measure, which Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) estimates will cost taxpayers approximately $84 million.
Still more people spoke during the public forum that followed, during which time anyone could address their opinion, concerns or questions to the Board. More than three hours passed by the time impromptu speakers ceased filing up to the podium. The list of grievances with the GSI plan were long and varied. Concerns included its exorbitant cost, inflation of emergency services response times, the potentially economically disastrous downturn for the businesses lining the “ground zero” corridor, and efficacy in reducing traffic along Route 29.
“There are a lot of jobs at stake here. If business goes down even 20% there will be a lot of revenue lost,” said Jim Brewer, who along with wife, Nancy Brewer, owns Builders Lighting LLC at 1807 Seminole Trl., the veritable ground-zero of the proposed GSI. The Brewers spent the minutes before the 6 p.m. meeting manning a table outside the auditorium, where they fervently handed out signs that read, “Save my Job” and “Save my business” over bold red emblems that declared, “NO GSI.” They also offered attendees stickers that said, “Say no to Rt. 29 Expre$$way” and informative brochures provided by SMART29.org – an organization that created a petition and took to twitter to encourage citizens to attend the meeting and support supervisor Ken Boyd’s proposal to “pump the brakes” and launch a small-scale study before fully committing to the GSI.
Brewer’s sentiment was echoed by many speakers, including guitar store-owner Larry Howard, who told the council, “I funded this store with my retirement dollars . . . and it’s a shame if you’re going to close us down by building something that actually saves 60 seconds of time for $84 million.”
However, Russell “Mac” Lafferty took offense to the emergent notion among speakers that the expressway would not be effective in reducing traffic as well as the attitude of many speakers, some of whom stated that they felt as if they were being bullied into accepting the GSI over a number of other feasible and less expensive alternatives, such as sequencing stoplights along Route 29. During his turn at the podium, Lafferty referred to SMART29’s pessimistic data regarding the loss of convenient shopping, potential economic blight to the immediate area during VDOT’s proposed 2-year construction period and continued disadvantage to local traffic as “propaganda.”
Ultimately, the Board of Supervisors declared that they would not vote on Supervisor Ken Boyd’s motion that night, in part due to the sheer volume of public opinion to process and the length of the meeting. The proposal by Boyd, who represents Albemarle County’s Rivanna district and is himself the owner of a local business, for a small-scale study of the expressway’s impact is currently set for the agenda of the Board’s February 11 meeting. The vote is expected to take place on that date.
