This is an early architectural rendition of the U.S. 1-Courthouse Road crossroad in a future Downtown Stafford. Notice the statue in the middle of the intersection. One official observed: 'VDOT would never let them put it up.'

Residents get a peek at a Downtown Stafford 'vision'

Date published: 7/3/2007

by Hugh Muir

Residents packed the Board of Supervisors chambers last week for a show-and-tell version of "the vision" of a future downtown Stafford.

"When I moved to Stafford County 21 years ago, I found I was in a place nobody knew about," said Paul Milde III, Aquia District Supervisor and chair of the meeting. "There was, it appeared, no 'there' there. Once, when I called 911, I told them I was in Stafford, they said there was no such place."

A dozen key officials involved in the creation and development of a "Downtown Stafford" told the audience Thursday that such a place is long overdue and very much on their minds. And, they said, its completion is some 20 years down the line.

But in any case, said Brad Johnson, Stafford redevelopment administrator, "This is not just our vision; we also want public input. Tonight is one of many such forums."

"All roads lead to the Courthouse," said Jeffrey Harvey, county planning director, "but we don't have a town. This plan seeks to create a town center, with shopping and market areas, a cultural center, wider roadways, more sidewalks, pedestrian overpasses and expanded courthouse facilities." The center would be within a half-mile circle pinpointed on the Courthouse.

At present, the only existing part of a future downtown Stafford is the Government Administration Center, which includes the already overstrained courthouse. But the key to such development, Harvey said, is a new interchange between Interstate 95 and Courthouse Road. The present crossroads at U.S. 1 and Courthouse Road can hardly handle the traffic peaks that come from I-95 now.

That led David Ogle, the district administrator for the Virginia Department of Transportation, to wryly warn that, without a new interchange, "all of the free-flow traffic you are experiencing now will continue." The audience responded with laughter.

Ogle said a new interchange, involving a complex series of cloverleaf roads and overpasses, would be built perhaps a quarter mile south of the present simple on-off link between the interstate and Courthouse Road. A new multi-lane highway would connect I-95 to U.S 1 in the east and to a rerouted Courthouse Road in the west. It would end the traffic jams at the Courthouse Road and U.S. 1 intersection.

Read more stories about Stafford
Date published: 7/3/2007

Most recent reader comments: