Summer entertainment

A presentation of updates to the proposed 2040 Goochland County Major Thoroughfare Plan (MTP) resulting from community input at a March meeting, was the perfect antidote to television  reruns on the sultry evening of August 9.

The updated proposed plan (see http://goochlandva.us/DocumentCenter/View/4766/Community-Meeting-Presentation-8-9-18 for details) was pared down and changed from the current MTP, approved in 2005. Gone are plans to four lane Rt. 250 from the Henrico to Fluvanna borders and widening of Hockett Road in the east end.

Instead, the proposed MTP includes adding another lane to Fairground Road and allegedly making two lane roads like Rockville and Hadensville-Fife safer by increasing their rights-of-way to accommodate wider shoulders. It also includes the connector bridge between Tuckahoe Creek Parkway and Ridgefield Parkway in Henrico.

A connector between Hockett and Ashland Road, south of Broad Street Road that was removed from an access management plan adopted a few years ago, has reappeared. Residents of Hickory Haven and business owners on the north end of Hockett Road who objected to this, need to review the proposed MTP and contact their supervisor with comments. The Board will hold a workshop on the matter on August 29. Public hearings will be held before the planning commission and supervisors later this year before anything is adopted.

The Board meeting room was full of citizens fired up about rush hour traffic on River Road West and in the Hockett/Manakin Roads corridor on August 9.

Todd Kilduff, Deputy County Administrator for Community and Economic Development, explained that the MTP is a  conceptual plan, part of the county’s  comprehensive land use plan, that helps guide land use decisions. It does NOT include a detailed map or exact location for any proposed roads, but rather indicates the general location of traffic problems and suggests possible mitigation strategies.

Carl Tewksbury, a traffic engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates, the consulting firm retained by the county to update the MTP, reiterated that the MTP is just lines on a map. It takes a long time to plan for and build roads, which are expensive and not getting any cheaper. Goochland County Administrator John Budesky explained that it takes about five years for a road project to be added to the VDOT secondary six year road plan. If the stars align and money is available, the road might then get built, which is itself a multi-year project. Bulldozers are not revving their engines to start building the conceptual roads shown on the 2040 MTP.

In March, owners of property—much of it landlocked—south of Tuckahoe Creek Parkway between West Creek and Hockett Road (we’ll call them the southern land owners, SLO for short), sent letters to residents of the south end of Hockett Road implying that the county would soon condemn part of their front yards for road widening if the HHHunt  proposal was approved. Those residents came to the March meeting angrily demanding that the county not widen the road as proposed in the 2005 MTP.

That lengthy  session yielded  a list of transportation—read “road”—improvement priorities that Kimley-Horn incorporated into the proposed MTP.  The supervisors heeded the wishes of citizens and removed expansion of the south end of Hockett Road from the proposed MTP.

Fast forward to the August meeting. A new north-south connector road to ease the  traffic problem on Hockett was included to the proposed MTP, generally, intersecting with River Road West in the vicinity of the Richmond County Club.

This time, the SLO riled up residents who live near the Richmond Country Club about the “new road” passing next to their homes.

The RCC area people were furious and ignored comments by both Kilduff and Tewksbury that no specific location for this road has been designated. They also did not seem to understand that no roads in this area will be built any time soon. Indeed, relatively minor improvements to the Broad Street Road/Rt. 288 interchange, which were approved and funded a few years ago, will not be complete until late 2020. The time frame for brand new roads is much longer and, depending on future growth, might never be built.

The SLO, who just happened to have their own alternate route, contended that their connector roads, whose rights of way would be donated to the county and hinted that they might help fund construction, generated standing support from the Cobblestone folks, who should have known better.

The SLO alternate route connects with westbound West Creek Parkway just west of its intersection with Rt. 288 (sorry about all the wests). It gives no indication where the traffic is headed after reaching West Creek Parkway. How traffic headed for southbound Rt. 288 will reach its destination is not addressed. This is probably not a good place for  roundabout or traffic light. Congestion that now clogs Hockett Road at rush hour would just be moved and perhaps back up even more.

New roads through the undeveloped parcels just north of River Road West will bring their own set of traffic problems. The value of land owned by the SLO will increase when it has road access. These landowners will undoubtedly develop this land to its “highest and best use” as the real estate folks say, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Whatever is built there will generate traffic. We do not know what that development will look like. The current comprehensive plan suggests unspecified “commercial “with no retail. That could change. Residential use seems to be in favor between West Creek and Hockett Road, so homes ranging from upscale estates like Rivergate, or dense high-rise affordable housing might be built there. Alternatively, commercial uses on those parcels could include warehouses to move cargo from the giant container ships that will soon dock in Tidewater, office buildings, or other enterprises. However that land develops, it will generate traffic. It may also be clear cut to accommodate new uses.

Most of the discussion centered on rush hour congestion in the Hockett Road/River Road West area caused by employees from Capital One and CarMax homebound south of the  James River seeking to avoid “parking lot” conditions on Rt. 288 is likely.

The 800 pound elephant in the room, Rt. 288, was hardly mentioned.

Kilduff explained that, since Rt. 288 is VDOT territory, it is not addressed in Goochland’s MTP. Coincidently, the current MTP was approved in 2005, approximately the same time that Rt. 288 connected Interstates 64 and 95. When Rt, 288 was opened, VDOT predicted that it would take at least 20 years for the new road to reach its capacity. In reality, it was soon clogged at rush hour. Kilduff also said that VDOT is investigating methods to increase the capacity of Rt. 288 by using its shoulders as traffic lanes. There was no mention of how this would work on the James River bridge.

The 2040 MTP is not a magic bullet to eliminate traffic and ease congestion. It does provide a game plan, subject to change, to prioritize transportation projects.

Please take a look at the proposed MTP and provide feedback to your supervisor or county administration.