The challenges facing our natural environment have not received the attention they deserve. As a City Councilor, I will make environmental issues a priority

1. Ivy Landfill/Zero Waste. Today I join UVa Architect Julie Bargmann and others in calling for the City of Charlottesville to adopt, as a goal, a Zero Waste standard for our cornmunity. Zero Waste is an approach that maximizes recycling, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and aggressively pursues the creative reuse, repair, and recycling of products. Not incidentally. these are strategies that often result in now job creation and the development of now locally-owned businesses

2. Ecological Action Planning. I support the development and implementation of an Ecological Action Plan that would be integrated into the City's Comprehensive Plan. Under this Ecological Action Plan, the City would more conscientiously monitor and improve the quality of our air, water, soil and natural areas ; create a Water Budget for Charlottesville ; expand and connect parks, trails, greenbelts and natural areas within City limits so that we truly can realize the dream of the "City as a Park".

3. Alternative Transportation. Currently, less than 31% of the transportation funds that come into our region am devoted to mass transit, bicycling, or other alternatives to the automobile. It's not enough to say we support alternative transportation; we need to insist that a greater portion of the transportation pie be dedicated to alternative transportation. We need to require that all now residential developments in the area be pedestrian-oriented and built to human scale; we need to make our street crossings, sidewalks and commercial districts as pedestrian-friendly as possible.

4. Sustainable Development/Meadowcreek Parkway. If we as a region are going to make a concerted effort to curb suburban sprawl, we neecl to look at ways to concentrate new development in the designated "growth areas' around Charlottesville. Sometimes, accommodating now infill growth does require the construction of new roads. This is why I have gone on record as supporting the construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway. However, I went to make something very clear. In December of 2000, when the City last voted to move forward with ithe Parkway, it set forth a series of conditions on which its support for the Parkway rested. These very reasonable conditions were designed to ensure that the Parkway is built in a way that benefits, rather than harms, the City and its residents. They included limiting the Parkway to two lanes, restricting access, replacing parkland to create an expanded McIntire Park, providing for a "tight urban interchange" at Rte. 250, and developing a new regional transportation plan which would minimize the impact of now County development on City roads.

As a City Councilor, I will stand up for the City in negotiations with the County and with VDOT to make certain that the conditions set forth by a majority of City Councilors in December 2000 are met before we move forward with this road. Unless and until all the conditions set forth by the City have been met to my full satisfaction, I ca not and will not support the construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway.

On all of these critical issues, I will be a forceful advocate for creative solutions that preserve and enhance our natural resources.

Joan Fenton (Press release, fax, February 18, 2002)