Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Talks over future of Ashburn traffic heat up
At the first Waxpool Road Task Force meeting last week, citizens fumed over the way the county is handling road construction.
“This is not rocket science,” Ashburn resident Walt Purnell said to Supervisor Steve Snow (R-Dulles) at the May 22 meeting. The roads were “planned without thinking about the consequences.”
About 20 residents, county staff, landowners and business leaders were involved in the talks.
“What do you think this is going to fix?” Purnell said about the idea of a community meeting. “It will be another three-year discussion. Can't you figure this out on your own?”
County staffers listed the projects currently in process and in the pipeline for construction, including finishing Gloucester Boulevard, and expanding Pacific Boulevard, Severn Way to Nokes Boulevard, and Sterling Boulevard to Cedar Green.
Staff also pointed out that financing is a large problem. A lot of construction is done by proffers from developers and money in the regional fund, they said, but some citizens didn't like that answer.
“You've let the developers dictate how this county is going to be, not our county telling us,” said resident Sue Purnell.
Bob Moses, who is also vice chairman of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, said to Snow, “I hold you partially responsible” along with the other board members because they “did not follow the Comp Plan and didn't listen to staff” on their recommendations. “We now have a hodge-podge of things put together.”
Snow admitted that the transportation plans in the area were not comprehensively looked at in the past. He pointed out that the meeting was to look at what can be done now, to talk with residents and prioritize the needs of roadways.
“The success of this project is predicated on citizen input,” Snow said. “We need the person behind the wheel to tell us their frustrations.”
Eventually, discussion did turn to the actual problems of the Ashburn area with citizens stating certain areas that need to be addressed, including buses, name changes on Waxpool/Farmwell Road, acceleration lanes and inconsistent speed limits throughout the major developments in Ashburn.
One idea that was unanimously agreed upon was that any planning for future roadways and transportation needs must have fit into the future railway system.
This is the first of many meetings the Waxpool Task Force is planning. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for next month.
You must be logged in to post a comment.