"Some members of Charlottesville City Council don't agree on what to do with the U.S. route 29 bypass. Council discussed its stance on the four-lane, six-mile road and its inclusion in the local Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Improvement Plan at a recent work session.

The MPO board - consisting of two city councilors, two Albemarle County supervisors, and one Virginia Department of Transportation representative - approves the Transportation Improvement Plan, the document that authorizes federal funding for road projects in the city and county.

Many citizens are opposed to the bypass because they say it would threaten the safety of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, the main drinking water supply for 80,000 people in the city and county. The road would cut through the reservoir watershed. Opponents fear that pollutants such as potential hazardous materials spills, sedimentation, and chemical runoff could contaminate the water. Those who support the bypass say it is needed to eliminate through traffic, thus alleviating congestion on U.S. 29.

The Albemarle County board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in 1997 in opposition to the project because of the environmental risks they believe the road poses, its tremendous expense, and its likely inability to greatly improve traffic flow on U.S. 29 by VDOT's standards.

The city, on the other hand, has not come out with a formal statement in support or opposition to the project thus far. The council could make a statement in mid-April or early May, however, Mayor Blake Caravati said.

Councilor Kevin Lynch, is one of two city representatives on the MPO board, said the bypass should be left in the TIP but assigned a low priority.

'The first thing we should do is put our priorities in front of the state. That's the first thing we should do. And then see what we get back,' Lynch said.

Councilor David Toscano said he has some strong concerns about taking the bypass out of the TIP when they don't have any alternative solutions. 'And for all of you who are so concerned about neighborhood impact and traffic, you've got to recognize there is some impact to not building anything.'

Vice-Mayor Maurice Cox said he is opposed to the project and wants it taken out of the TIP, but not yet.

'I would agree with you that we don't have an alternative and my worst nightmare is that if the bypass does not get built and Meadowcreek Parkway, stages one and two, do and Charlottesville becomes a de facto bypass, [then] that is a real concern,' Cox said.

Cox said he wants to ask Albemarle County to drop its support for the Meadowcreek Parkway before he votes to pass a resolution to take the bypass out of the TIP.

'And if we agree as two jurisdictions that neither of these projects is good for our jurisdiction, then I think we have a basis to support their desire to remove the bypass from the TIP,' Cox said.

'I believe it should stay in the TIP until we see some other solutions in the manner that [Toscano] was talking about,' such as a regional transportation plan, Caravati said. 'There is an election that is going on that sort of leans [Cox's] way if one person is successful, then that's going to be a bad situation. That means no roads get built ...,' he said, alluding to city council candidates Alexandria Searls and Stratton Salidis, who oppose the parkway.

Councilor Meredith Richards, the other MPO representative, said: 'I supported the resolution that the MPO has included in our TIP since 1996' that withholds federal funding for the bypass. But she said, 'It hasn't done anything to slow down the project that I know of.'

The MPO has withheld funding for years for the construction of the route 29 bypass because certain aspects of its 'Three Party Agreement' - between the city, the county, and the University of Virginia haven't been followed. The three party agreement calls for easing traffic on U.S. 29 through a defined sequence of road projects, all of which must come before the actual bypass is built. One part of that sequence is the construction of grade-separated interchanges at Rio Road, Greenbrier Drive and Hydraulic Road.

Richards said the bypass has always been given a low priority in the TIP, and the only way to make a statement is to take it out altogether.

There are risks to wiping out the bypass though, Richards added. VDOT could build the road with only state money, a scenario that may be unlikely given the state's budget shortfalls. Richards said VDOT could also react to its removal from the TIP by deciding to work with the local MPO to resolve their issues, or, they could go the opposite direction and dissolve the MPO as a non-cooperating governing body.

Larry Hagin, Senior Transportation Planner at the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, said taking the U.S. 29 bypass out of the TIP is uncharted territory for the area - and the state. 'You are not going to know what's going to happen until the decision is made,' Hagin said.

As far as the Meadowcreek Parkway, the county has indicated it is interested in building its portion from Rio Road to Melbourne Road where it meets the city line, even if the city doesn't construct their part.

'The two roads deal with different streams of traffic and [Cox] said that at the meeting. They are not substitutes - one for the other,' Sally Thomas, chairperson of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, said.

Referring to Cox's suggestion that the county stop supporting the parkway in return for the city asking its MPO representatives to take the bypass out of the TIP, she said: 'Political trading of roads seems to me a basically amateurish process - that we shouldn't be designing our roads that way.'

The MPO does not have to vote on this at its next meeting April 8, given the state budget unknowns on road projects in general.

One national watchdog group has unequivocally taken a stand on the bypass, and that's the Taxpayers for Common Sense, who call it a 'pork barrel road project.' The group, which wants the road eliminated from consideration, lists the bypass as one of the nation's 25 most wasteful projects, costing an estimated $30 million dollars per mile.

In a related item, a Lynchburg resident is hoping the road is constructed soon. Robert Jordan petitioned Albemarle Circuit Judge Peatross last week to summon a special grand jury to look into whether the delay in the building of the bypass is a 'public nuisance.' Peatross threw out the petition." (Jennifer Pullinger, The Observer. April3, 2002)