Charlottesville City Council urged to scale back plans for 250-Meadowcreek Parkway interchange

Charlottesville - Proposed designs for the interchange of the 250 Bypass and Meadowcreek Parkway appear to be much larger than needed and would overwhelm the site, according to the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which has been closely monitoring the project. The organization is urging City Council to step in now and direct the project consultants to shift the focus of their planning to a "context sensitive design" that protects scenic, historic and community-oriented values while still meeting traffic needs.

"It's clear the Meadowcreek Parkway would need an interchange where it would intersect the 250 Bypass. But designs now under consideration all show super-engineered projects, with little regard for the lay of the land, the surrounding land uses, or the needs of the community," said Kay Slaughter, SELC Senior Attorney. "An engineering mindset solely focused on moving as many cars as possible in various directions appears to be driving the process." Slaughter will present SELC's concerns at the City Council meeting tonight.

Council has not yet received final design options from the consultant. But the concepts being reviewed by a steering committee made up of City, County and citizen representatives show multiple variations of a split-grade project that would widen the proposed two-lane parkway to three or four lanes, plus add several on and off ramps.

"It's the tail wagging the dog," Slaughter said. "If Council does not intercede now, we'll end up with an interchange similar to those where Emmett Street and Barracks Road cross the 250 Bypass. A smaller project, like the bypass interchanges at Park Street or Locust Street, is a more appropriate design for something within the city."

Among other things, SELC is concerned that the current drafts appear to:

• Consume an excessive amount of land, including part of McIntire Park
• Drastically alter the topography of what is now a gently rolling landscape at the site
• Assume much greater increase in traffic than adjacent roads would in fact allow
• Fail to make pedestrian and bike access from downtown to the park a top priority, as citizens and council have requested for years
• Widen much of the proposed Meadowcreek Parkway beyond the two-lane design, specified by Council.

Morgan Butler, Director of SELC's Charlottesville-Albemarle Initiative, said that the Virginia Department of Transportation has accommodated a "context sensitive" approach for several other projects that adhere more closely to the community character versus an over-engineered design. "This should be an attractive gateway to downtown. We don't want to supersize it," he said.

SELC recently launched its Charlottesville-Albemarle Initiative to promote sensible growth and transportation choices in the region as a focus of its Land & Community Program. The group's work on the 250/parkway interchange is part of this initiative.