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STAMP-2025: Sensible Alternatives to the Meadow Creek Parkway
Tuesday, 7 March 2006
Response to Public Involvement Inquiry
Topic: Public Involvement

Here is the response to my February 22, 2006 Inquiry
To: Peter Kleeman
From: Angela Tucker
Date: March 6, 2006
Reference: Route 250 Interchange Project; Public Participation; Purpose and Need; Alternative Selection

Peter:

Thank you for your e-mail of February 22, 2006 regarding: 1.) public involvement in Steering Committee meetings, 2.) the project Purpose and Need document, and 3.)compliance with current federal project development requirements.

As you know, the Steering Committee’s current position is that the public will be provided an opportunity to comment on Steering Committee meeting agenda items, at the end of each meeting, time permitting. Be assured, we will always attempt to have time available for public comments. As noted at the March 2, 2006 Steering Committee meeting, the matter of public involvement in the Steering committee meetings will be discussed at the next Steering Committee meeting, tentatively scheduled for April 20, 2006.

At the second Steering Committee meeting on January 11, 2006, we had intended to divide the Steering Committee into two groups to review the preliminary interchange concepts. We also intended to have a third group for public attendees. Each of the three groups was to include Project Team members to facilitate the discussions. It was anticipated that each group would summarize and report their comments back to the full Steering Committee. However, time did not permit this approach and you were invited to join with the Steering Committee in providing comments. In the future, when reviewing alternatives, we intend to follow this format and will provide a separate work table for the public, facilitated by members of the Project Team, to review and comment on the range of interchange alternatives, and the detailed interchange alternatives/ recommended interchange alternative.

The role of the Steering Committee is noted on slides 11 to 14 of the November 3, 2005 meeting presentation and slides 4 to 7 of the January 11, 2006 meeting presentation, all of which are included on the project website. A major component of that role is to assist the Project Team in facilitating and enhancing the public involvement effort. It is clear that the public involvement process, including the public workshops, meetings with those most directly affected by the project, the project website, etc. will significantly benefit from Steering Committee input. The material to be presented at the initial Citizen Informational Meeting has been enhanced thanks to the efforts of the Steering Committee members at last week’s meeting. We have encouraged the Steering Committee members to attend and be involved in the Citizen Informational Meetings and to experience first hand, public comments and recommendations.

The Steering Committee is free to reach a consensus and make recommendations on various aspects of the project, should they choose to do so. If they choose to make comments or recommendations about the project, we will advise the public of these comments. However, project decisions are NOT the responsibility of the Steering Committee, but rest with the City of Charlottesville, VDOT and FHWA. Informed project decisions will consider public input, along with that of the Project Team, Steering Committee and the Environmental Resource and Regulatory Agencies.

The Project Team is in compliance with current federal statutes and regulations. In fact, we will exceed those requirements by conducting public meetings at each key milestone of the project development process. We are currently in the phase of the project that involves collecting pertinent information and data, preparing for our initial public meeting and developing key themes for the draft Purpose and Need, and project Goals and Objectives, along with the starting point for preliminary Interchange Concepts. The key themes of the draft Purpose and Need are noted in the Steering Committee meetings information, included on the project website. You are welcome to provide comments on those themes, at your convenience.

The initial kick-off Citizen Informational Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 23, 2006 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Senior Center. Citizen Informational Meeting #1 will include the presentation of the following types of information for discussion with and comments from the public:

* Purpose of Citizen Informational Meeting #1
* Draft Purpose & Need – Key Themes
* Draft Goals & Objectives
* Environmental Coordination Process
* Public Involvement Initiatives
* Initial Environmental Inventory
* Traffic Analysis/Travel Demand Modeling/Long Range Plan
* Context Sensitive Urban Design
* Project Design Challenges
* Interchange Concepts – Starting Point – October 2000 Report
* Refined Preliminary Interchange Concepts – 2006
* Project Schedule/Next Steps

The draft Citizen Informational Meeting #1 material was reviewed with the Steering Committee at the March 2, 2006 meeting. You were provided with a copy of that material, as were the other members of the public in attendance. The material has also been placed on the project web site and will be available for public comment until Thursday, March 9, 2006. The material will then be refined, placed on the project website and presented at the March 23, 2006 Citizen Informational Meeting. The notice for Citizen Informational Meeting #1 will indicate the availability of meeting material. Based on the comments we receive at the initial Citizen Informational Meeting on these and others items, the Project Team will develop a draft project Purpose and Need statement which will be placed on the project web site for public comments and also made available to the environmental resource and regulatory agencies and to the Steering Committee for comments.

The draft Purpose and Need will also be presented at the Citizen Informational Meeting #2, along with a potential range of Interchange alternatives. The Purpose and Need will be a living document, and it will be refined as appropriate through the project development/ NEPA process. Following Citizen Informational Meeting #2, the Project Team will meet with the environmental resource agencies to review the draft Purpose and Need, the potential range of alternatives and the methodologies and level of detail required in the evaluation of each alternative. Following the meeting with the resource agencies, the Range of Interchange Alternatives to be evaluated in detail will be determined. This Range of Interchange Alternatives will be evaluated over the summer and presented at Citizen Informational Meeting #3 in the fall. This detailed evaluation of Interchange Alternatives will be included in the draft environmental document, which may include a preferred alternative.

Thank you for your comments. We look forward to meeting with the public on March 23rd to present, discuss and receive their comments on the initial project information.

Cc:
All Steering Committee Members
All Project Team Members


posted by Peter T. Kleeman - techniquest@netscape.net

Posted by va3/stamp2025 at 4:25 PM EST
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