George,

This letter is being sent to a number of people in anticipation of the School Board meeting on May 1.

As you may be aware, the land in question has always been on the "chopping block" for the Parkway even at the time of its the property's purchase by the City in the early 1980's. Indeed, I have recently learned from a gentleman who was a member of the school board in the late 1960's, that CHS's location was even picked with the Parkway in mind, and at that time from his view as a Board member the proposed parkway was going to be a nice connection of the City's high school to the heart of the City. So the only thing new going on, is that the lawyers decided it was proper for the City to ask the School Board's permission to give an easement to VDOT.

Of course, longevity of the planning for the Parkway does not mean it is a good idea; times, traffic volumes and traffic patterns change. There are certainly a lot of very reasonable people who think the Parkway is a bad idea. I personally have mix feelings about whether it is a good transportation decision or not. I will lament the loss of park land in McIntire Park and the wooded trails and I'll be frustrated by the stream of traffic coming through what was woods and the creation of a significant new intersection on Melbourne. Moreover, with all the building in the urban ring I can't see the Parkway really changing the traffic level on Park St. much. Also a lot of the traffic the Parkway will carry, I'm sure will be county traffic just passing through the City.

Nevertheless, I will greatly enjoy the new linear park and its multi-use trail and getting 50 acres of preserved parkland in exchange for 9 acres is not all bad (the City will own 50 new acres of Parkland as part of the Parkway construction deal they struck). In addition, the housing in the urban ring is going to be built whether the Parkway is or not (see e.g. the Belvedere subdivision clearing) and so transportation improvements must be made. The question of whether the Parkway is the proper improvement has raged for decades and many a City Councilor has had to take a stand on the issue during an election and while on Council. The School Board should have been brought in earlier in the design phase but I personally do not think we were elected to make a key transportation decision for the region, and nobody who voted for me had a chance to make their decision in whole or part on my stand on the issue. I can not speak for other School Board members but based on our conversations to date, it seems others members do feel the same way.

The City kindly purchased this land for the schools (at no cost to the Schools -- it's of course all the same pocket anyway) and now is asking our permission to let the City give VDOT an easement over a small part of the land for the Parkway; a Parkway which the City has indicated it wants (through the vote of City Council). Many high schools end up with busy streets or highways at their front door and indeed perhaps most of these high schools are put in such places intentionally (see e.g. Madison HS, Western Albemarle HS, Nelson County HS) and other have the roads in front of them get busier and busier (see e.g. Albemarle HS and many schools in Richmond, Northern VA, and Tidewater).

Anyway, my focus is on making this road that the City has chosen, to be as pedestrian/bike friendly and safe for crossing as we can, at this very late stage in the design process (as well as getting access to needed field space for CHS). This seems to be other Board members approach as well but we will see what happens at our meeting on Thursday night. There will be time for public comment near the start of the meeting if you or others are interested, but I'm sure all the Board members have read your e-mail and again thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts. I also note that the City Council (the body elected to make transportation decisions for the City) will still need to take final action on granting the easement to VDOT. I understand that the issue will come up at their May 5th meeting. So those wishing to fight/be heard on the concept of the Parkway itself still have that opportunity as well.

Ned Michie (Electronic mail, April, 2008)

Ned Michie is Chair of the Charlottesville School Board