George,

First an attorney general opinion and now a proposed referendum on the parkway? Surely Meredith knows that the City of Charlottesville does not have statutory authority to hold a referendum on the transfer of land.

Even if we could hold a referendum, I doubt that it would be very helpful (although Maurice and I did support asking the general assembly to change our charter to allow such a referendum when the issue was brought up by a number of citizens over a year ago – and we were in the minority). The issues surrounding the parkway are complex and do not reduce to the yes/no sound bites favored by the media. To simply vote the parkway up or down puts the City in a box, no matter what one's position.

The real question should be: under what conditions do we build the parkway. The answer for me is 1) an interchange that moves the MCP traffic and doesn't further congest the 250 bypass, 2) functionally equivalent replacement parkland and 3) a commitment by the County to provide for their share of regional infrastructure - in particular to an eastern connector and southern parkway.

A referendum will not and cannot result in an optimal outcome. If the City votes to build the road now (as some Councilors want us do), we will be giving up on the interchange, replacement parkland and all other leverage we have to make the MCP a good road. If we vote against the road (which would be my choice if forced to make a yes/no decision) we are not acknowledging the traffic problems which we must solve.

I believe that a referendum would divide and paralyze Council. It would take us a year just to get the necessary authority from the general assembly. We would then spend months debating the exact wording of the proposition. And, as David Brown said at the forum last night, the expensive and partisan advertising campaigns would dominate the public debate. I think Meredith is using the idea of a referendum to find safer political ground without having really examined all the difficulties.

The forum also revealed that all the candidates except for Meredith explicitly rejected using an easement to transfer. Meredith continued to waver. We should reject both the referendum and the easement. I hope the next Council will be able to focus on the real issues of roads and transportation and not the side issues.

I urge all Democrats to come to the Convention tomorrow. And I would appreciate your support.

Kevin Lynch (electronic mail, February 6, 2004)