"The UVa garage's potential traffic impact has been at the center of a heated, months-long debate pitting UVa against city leaders and residents.

A UVa-commissioned traffic study concluded the university could build the garage, a planned 15,000-seat Massie Road arena and a planned Carr's Hill arts precinct without causing unacceptable problems. But two critiques of the study - one commissioned by the city and another by several neighborhood associations - said the UVa study used flawed data and methodology.

UVa later agreed to pay for a new study by a traffic-engineering firm mutually acceptable to the city and university, though the school only agreed to complete the study before the garage opened. A steering committee made up of representatives from the city, community, UVa and the Virginia Department of Transportation is scheduled to interview three engineering firms for the job Friday.

VDOT concluded in August that the initial UVa study failed to adequately address several issues. VDOT's conclusion drove a recommendation from the state Department of Environmental Quality that the state either reject the garage until local issues, mainly dealing with traffic, were resolved or approve it contingent on traffic issues being resolved before construction began.

But the state secretary of administration ruled earlier this month that UVa could begin building the garage before the new traffic study is completed. VDOT, however, must agree to the scope of the traffic study before construction begins, and UVa must make improvements related to the garage that the new study recommends before the garage opens.

UVa officials have said they hope to begin construction of the garage, which will be built behind the Best Western Cavalier Inn, around Oct. 1." (Eric Swensen, The Daily Progress, September 23, 2002)