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In a surprise move, county votes unanimously to cancel the Harrison Road Connector by the Towne Centre indefinitely. Date published: 8/11/2009
BY DAN TELVOCK
The Harrison Road Connector by the Spotsylvania Towne Centre will not be built anytime soon, if ever. The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night voted unanimously to cancel the road project indefinitely. The decision surprised more than 50 residents who attended the public hearing on creating a special service district to pay for the road. Not one of the speakers supported the project. Most of them live near the mall and would have been directly impacted by the 1.5-mile road that would have started behind the mall and ended on Harrison Road near Hazelwild Farm. Contrary to what Supervisor Jerry Logan had told Waverly Village residents last month at a community association meeting, the mall company has no plan to sue the county if the road is not built. In 2006, the Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for the mall under the condition that Cafaro Co. build the connector road. A promise that residential properties would never have to pay for the road was not followed, and attempts to rectify the situation didn't work. "It wasn’t true," mall owner J.J. Cafaro said about the accusation that he threatened to sue the county. "I didn't want there to be any more misconception." After the vote, Cafaro said not having the road built is "fine with me." Residents urged supervisors not to create a special service district that included residential properties in the taxing boundaries. Some wore orange vests made out of trash bags and held signs that read "Stop Eminent Domain Abuse" and "Stop the SSD." Although supervisors said those residential property owners would never have to pay an additional real estate tax as long as they did not convert their land to commercial or industrial zoning, the service district ordinance did not exclude those properties from the boundaries even though state law allows it. "I think all of you should be ashamed yourselves," said Bragg Road resident Scott Smith. "This road was presented as a way to relieve traffic on Route 3. It was a total lie." Those who opposed the road said it was being built to benefit developer interests and that it could lead to a lawsuit over eminent domain.
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 8/11/2009
Could you please elaborate on the "misinformation", GRice? I don't feel misinformed. And isn't everyone who has an opinion on this road filled with emotion and spin? Your post, with the words "duped" puts your own special interests into play.
the plan was for it to end in a parking lot! Tell me how this would move traffic, bob367. Please be informed before posting. I didn't see you there at the meeting, either.
...except they were against the perceived secrecy of the nogotiations and the illogic of proposed route. You can't have a road that will "improve traffic flow" that truncates at a parking lot, just as you can't have a road that will "improve access" that will carry commuters who just want to pass through. This one road could effectively achieve neither of these purposes. Hopefully the next proposal will be collector/distributor roads that run aside I-95 and impede less on current property owners.
Opponents think they won this round by shaming the BoS into realizing the Connector was a bad idea. That, unfortunately, was not the case, & that's why this whole mess will, as Ms Swanson said, undoutedly surface again. It was obvious the core opponents simply duped the majority of their supporters through a campaign of misinformation, spin, & emotion which the Board had failed to effectively counter. With election coming, they retreated. The issue was not won on merit, & that's why it ain't over.
This road was not needed, lived here all my life, Harrison road did not need the extra burden. Get used to the traffic on rt 3 or move elsewhere.
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