"City councilors’ refusal last week to select a design for an interchange at the U.S. 250 Bypass and McIntire Road has clouded the project’s future and frustrated those who have spent nearly two years fashioning options.

Councilors uniformly agreed that the two alternatives on the table are too large and too dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists, sending the committee creating the design back to the drawing board.

“I think what they came up with is a little bit too grandiose for what we need,” Mayor Dave Norris said.

But forging a consensus among councilors will not be a simple task: some prefer an interchange with signals, some say they could vote for a roundabout design and others don’t want the interchange built at all.

City engineers will provide councilors with more information on the two options during a work session in late May or June, but councilors’ concerns may not be easily allayed.

If councilors demand extensive revisions to the interchange, that could delay the project and push back the construction of the long-debated Meadowcreek Parkway, which would connect the interchange to East Rio Road. And any postponement would likely escalate the project’s costs.

“Unless some decision is made soon and the project continues to move forward, we may have to go back and re-look at the schedule,” Lou Hatter, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said of the parkway, for which construction is slated to begin in late fall.

“The longer it is delayed, the more costs will increase due to inflationary pressure that construction is facing in general,” Hatter said.

A committee of Charlottesville residents has met consistently since summer 2006 to create and vet potential designs, whittling down the options from 14 to two — and selecting an oval roundabout as the best choice.

Several committee members expressed a mixture of irritation and disenchantment that councilors did not endorse the designs that they had spent so long refining.

Fellow committee members are “voicing grave disappointment that a city-appointed steering committee is not having its recommendation followed,” Mike Farruggio said. “What makes it more frustrating for us is it was two years’ worth of time away from our families and businesses, readying, making field trips and meetings to put a lot of thought into the recommendation.”

Longtime opponents of the interchange and parkway could barely contain their glee upon the council’s decision. Nearly two dozen residents beseeched councilors on Monday to either quash the interchange or greatly reduce its size and impact on surrounding properties.

“There’s nothing like concrete plans to make people really start focusing on what this interchange will begin to mean to the community and the neighborhood,” said Daniel Bluestone, a professor of architectural history at the University of Virginia.

The main concern of councilors is the sheer size of the interchange: The roundabout option, preferred by the committee, would take up 7.3 acres, while the signalized interchange would cover 5.9 acres.

“It seems to me like it’s really large and it just doesn’t seem like a good fit,” Councilor Julian Taliaferro said.

Councilors also fret about the project’s cost. While the city has secured $29.6 million in federal and state money, city officials estimate it will cost between $31 million and $35.5 million.

With additional money from the state unlikely, the city will have to find other ways to cut expenses. Reducing the project’s scope could save money, councilors hope.

“It would make sense to me that the one with the smaller footprint would be less costly and easier to scale back,” Councilor David Brown said, pointing out the advantages of going with the signalized option.

Finally, councilors questioned whether the plans provide safe access to McIntire Park for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“We need to do a better job for pedestrians,” Councilor Satyendra Huja said.

The lead consultant on the project said he will use the upcoming work session to better lay out the advantages of the two options in hopes of convincing councilors to pick one soon.

“It’s our job to keep the process moving forward as rapidly as we can, and we need council to select an alternative,” Owen Peery, the consultant, said." (Seth Rosen, The Daily Progress, April 27, 2008)