So my question is, while Corey bloviates about saving taxes, yadayadayada, what is he doing about saving tax payer money when it comes the creation of the outer beltway, a major road that will be used as a cut through for trucks to Dulles?
I question why allowing the state to use PWC , like a cheap one night stand for developers, would ever be our best interest? Has Innovation been forgotten, is she now the too old and unattractive for commercial? The Bull Run Observer had an article in their paper, giving number for jobs that had been added by companies. It was in single and double digits, my friends! The grand total was a little more than 100 jobs. In a county of 400,000 I was embarrassed.
Here are some basics from Leesburg Today.
The latest version is the Commonwealth Transportation Board’s designated Corridor of Statewide Significance, called the North-South Corridor, which would link I-95 to near Dumfries to Rt. 7 east of Leesburg. Options to develop a four- to six-lane road that would provide a new western access to Dulles Airport has been under study for the past year.
In Prince William County, detailed planning already is under way to extend the Prince William County Parkway from its I-66 terminus to Rt. 50 in Loudoun, including a Manassas Battlefield bypass that would have north-south traffic skirt the western edge of the national park along Pageland Lane and Sanders Lane. That road would link to Northstar Boulevard and then to Belmont Ridge Road in Loudoun. From there, an eastern spur, either along Rt. 50 or to the north, would move traffic to Rt. 606 and Dulles Airport.
Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller and Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz told the audience Monday night the project, with a price tag that could exceed $1 billion, would do little to reduce commute times or spur job growth. They also questioned a key underpinning of the state’s push build the road, dismissing as “overstated” the claims that the highway was needed to accommodate growing cargo shipments at Dulles Airport.
“Growing cargo shipments” ? Sounds like lots of truck traffic, lots of outside of the county traffic would be using PWC land to reach their destination. And how again does this benefit the county? Well, I guess if you a residential developer, you must be salivating at the mouth!
Also making presentations during the session were John Hutchison of Aldie Heritage Association and Charlie Grymes, chairman of the Prince William Conservation Alliance.
Hutchison raised concerns that the highway would undermine efforts to create a rural experience that would attract tourist seeking to escape urban environments. The project was cited as the association’s top concern by members during a recent meeting, he said.
Grymes said the North-South Corridor project would do little to create new jobs in Prince William County and would conflict with the county’s strategic plans. “We should invest where we can grow jobs,” he said, adding that focus should be in the I-95 and Rt. 1 corridors at the eastern end of the county. “If you spend your money on a dumb road you don’t need, you don’t have any left,” he said.
Here is the best quote from Sean Connuaghton in a Washington Post article.
Connaughton said, “The future of Loudoun commercial development is to the west of Dulles Airport. We need to be able to get a way into that area.”
The “future of Loudon commercial development”?! WTF, he just threw the PWC under the bus out loud!
Thanks Sean, really, thank for nothing.
Thus far, leadership in PWC has been silent, crickets make more sound than any concern expressed by our supervisors about this road.
Certainly residents have been speaking out in opposition, I wonder when our elected leaders will take notice.
Great post Elena. I agree completely.
I agree also. We attended one of the sessions to get further info on how this plan would affect the Independent Hill area where it is difficult to enter Dumfries Road from many subdivisions during rush hour. Details were practically nonexistent. In fact it was suggested that the residents of the subdivisions may find future connections to be made between the subdivisions themselves – sparing residents having to access the main road. For the most part area residents are completely unaware of what the plans for Dumfries Road are. This road will bring more traffic from Stafford and Loudoun Counties through what is mainly a residential area. We’ll be a drive-through county as well as a bedroom community.
It looks like Loudoun benefits and Prince William just gets screwed.
When your bosrd members are focused on furthering themselves despite numerous failures or pandering to a few homeowners who are trying to wiggle out of paying taxes on the extreme home they CHOSE to buy….theres not a lot of attention paid to the citizens and or the future of PWC. The couple few who do appear to have an interest in PWC have been bullied by other members or by local bloggers. PWC lost its credibility during the immigration embarrassment. Maybe if we’re really lucky we can provide fast food breakfast/ dinners to those passing through.
I think you have said something horribly important there, Lyssa. You mention bullied by the other members or by local bloggers. that is very much the case or at least it was during the immigration upheavel (it was never a debate) and continues to this day.
I am going in and using bold on your words.
The original #28 by-pass concept was for Godwin Drive to continue
across Sudley Road (around Manassas City, Manassas Park and
Yorkshire) and connect to #66 near Centreville.
This was and is the best plan.
Other than for people in Loch Lomond, Westgate and Sudley. We would get to deal with the by-pass concept on a front yard basis.
I am not sure why you all are automatically against this. We all complain about congestion, which this would presumably lessen. It could possibly provide a new center for high-technology growth. I cannot tell at this early stage whether it’s a good deal or not. If it turns out to be a bad deal, I will be right there with you, but it is not clear to me a priori that this would be bad for PWC.
I don’t necessarily have an opinion yet, kelly. I don’t see it doing Prince William county much good, however. It seems to be something that will help the state and Loudoun out, more than Prince William. Right now, I am in the learning phase.
Censored,
Your comment would have been a perfect title!!!
“We’ll be a drive-through county as well as a bedroom community”
I’ve never understood the Virginian discussion about “transportation” and the belief that adding roads will relieve congestion in NOVA. It seems to me that every road built ends up increasing business/housing and adding to population density somewhere because it is now easier to get “there.”
Besides, where are you going put it. Everything is private property. If you tear down homes and businesses for the road…they have to move elsewhere, adding to congestion in the new place.
I don’t have an answer. Its a tough nut.
Much of the area where the road would go is rural.
Just follow the money to see where this is going.
Listen to Citizens Time from last week. Some speakers, one in particular who has connections with local developers, were whining about how the extended 234 bypass would restrict their ability to move into and out of their neighborhoods by not have an access ramp available to them. They didn’t whine about the bypass being extended to Dulles; only the lack of an access ramp for them. Their neighborhood was in the vicinity of Paigeland Farm. It is in the Gainesville District just north of the the234 intersection with I-66. It is in an area coveted by developers for more residential development.
Might one surmise that the eventual “compromise” might be an additional access point on this “limited access” roadway being built to haul freight back and forth from Dulles Airport (give me a break; you don’t have to be a member of Mensa to figure out how bogus that rationale is). Might that access point also be built to open up land now in the Rural Crescent to more residential development? Anyone willing to give me odds on this one?
Let’s take some of this back to the thing I have been bitching about for years….what are the proper names for the existing roads.
The road that comes off 66 that used to be called the Manassas By-pass is now called The Prince William Parkway. If you stay on it it magically turns into Dumfries Road and goes all the way to….Dumfries. Soemwhere in there is a Ronald Reagan Parkway.
If you take a left you will end up at Davis Ford Crossing and will go on to Woodbridge on the Prince William Parkway.
There is absolutely no reason to have such screwed up names for things. I have often said, they can name one of those roads the Corey Stewart Express for all I care, just so it is one stretch of road.
There is a reason for all this confusion–That is, so we will all stay confused, have no idea what is being discussed, and will willingly allow ourselves to be screwed.
Its actually very dangerous. Several years ago a friend of mine was in a minor wreck on what she thought was the parkway. She called the police who couldnt find her. She was actually on either the by pass or Dumfries road.
So what do we now call the stretch of highway that used to be the by pass and now goes from 66 past Balls Ford, Sudley Manor Dr. and Wellington? The Map says Prince William Parkway.
Ah.
So, when, NOT IF, that area builds up due to new access…then what? We have the same problem down here…to a lesser extent.
The only way to improve the traffic is to decentralize the area….move some of the reasons that people are driving to DC out of DC. Move the dept of the interior to Nebraska. Transportation…. California. Congress……about 5 miles off shore…..:evil:
I think you have to look at the history of this “outer beltway” idea to understand how wrong the current plan is. From my (admittedly less than perfect!) memory:
An outer beltway (actually rings of them) have been planned for the DC area since the 1950’s. The idea heated up about 20 years ago and a study was done for an eastern and western bypass around DC to reduce congestion on the beltway. The Maryland routes would have followed the path of Rt. 301 from below Richmond to above Baltimore. Residents on Rt.
301 killed that option. There were various Virginia paths, but Maryland resisted a Potomac crossing in their rural preserve area, so that option stalled too. The Virginia option was never as good as the Rt. 301 option anyway, because you would end up on 270 and need to go to Frederick before traveling east to continue north. It would have taken someone driving north-south MUCH longer to bypass the beltway on the Virginia side, hence it would probably not have been used much for that purpose.
Fast-forward to 2013, and what we have left is a remnant of the beltway bypass that’s being touted as a new western access to Dulles that will open up Dulles as a cargo hub. It will also be a developers road all the way from 95 along the current Rt. 234 path to Rt. 66 and on to the airport. It will open up mid-county to more dense residential development and traffic while possibly increasing cargo service at Dulles.
Already there is developer looking to gain access at Pageland to the outerbeltway.
Right now, the intent is to have the beltway be primarily for cargo trucks, but there is nothing in the future that says that plan won’t be altered.