Please join me for a Joint Rally for the Park, Trails and River Crossing on November 19th at 6:30 pm at the Board of Supervisors meeting at 1300 Courthouse Rd, Stafford, VA 22554 

There are two important Transportation public hearings on November 19th.

1. The new Transportation master includes a new river crossing with a 10' wide Trail at Celebrate Virginia Pkwy and the Mine Road extension.

2. A proposal to significantly increase Transportation Impact Fees on developers. The increased transportation funding from the new fees will help expedite needed transportation improvements.

The Park at Cannon Ridge is in CRISIS. The Silver company has submitted plans to build housing on the Golf Course. The housing development plan is directly in the path of options B-1 and B-2. The plans have been moving through a questionable process. Silver's plan is to exploit alleged loopholes to have the project approved by staff in the back room without public notifications, without public hearings and without proffers.

In 2003 Silver agreed to proffers to limit the housing to 1,450 units on the 350 acre Del Web parcels. He also proffered to prohibit housing on the rest of the 820 acres of Celebrate Virginia including the golf course. The County needs to enforce the proffer ordinances and not let the developers off the hook!

For over a decade the Golf Course has been designated as Open Space for recreation use in both the tax records and the Recreational Business Campus Ordinance (RBC). Silver has received reduced taxes, which amounts to about a million dollars in tax breaks because it was designated as Open Space.

In July of 2019 the Stafford Planning Commission unanimously voted to deny the residential rezoning at the golf course. That's the last official action on the golf course property that was done in the public eye.

We must fight back against back door rezonings!!! Staff doesn't have the authority to rezone land or change the open space designation of the assessment in the back room. Only the Board of supervisors has that authority, but only after there has been Public Notifications and Public Hearings!

The public can speak about the Park or Golf Course during the Public Presentation portion of the meeting at 6:30 pm.

The public can speak about the Transportation Master Plan and the Transportation Impact fees on developers during those two separate public hearings.

I hope you can join me at the Rally!!!

I recommend River Crossing Option B-2 for the following reasons.

1. Least direct impact to private property, only two landowners impacted (City of Fredericksburg and the Silver Company).

2. Least environmental impacts to Resource Protection Areas.

3. Shorter connection with the least clearing and Enviromental footprint.

4. Costs the least out of all the options, so it could be built years sooner than the other options.

5. Has no impact on the waterfall.

6. Is far enough from I-95 where the traffic noise will not impact the serenity on the bridge trail overlook.

7. Longer bridge span that will allow more wildlife migration and more possibilities for trails to pass underneath the bridge.

8. The longer bridge span has a much smaller footprint and has much less Enviromental damage to the RPA than the many culverts of option A.

9. Option B-2 is about 1/4 mile shorter than option B-1.
The projected traffic counts for 2050 are 40,000 trips per day.
A 1/4-mile reduction in 40,000 trips is a reduction in miles driven of 10,000 miles per day, which will significantly reduce air pollution.

10. A longer bridge will allow the runoff to be controlled for greater distances to be channeled to more environmentally friendly locations for containment and treatment before it reaches the river.

11. It maximizes the use of over $100 M in existing infrastructure and will have better traffic flow than the other options. The many connections to Route 17 and the Celebrate Virginia transportation grid will diffuse traffic congestion.

12. The new Road will improve Fire and Rescue Response and Transport times in some areas of Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties. Both Stafford Hospital and Mary Washington Hospital will have better access.

From the Celebrate Virginia Del Webb Senior Community it's roughly 7.5 miles currently to transport to Mary Washington Hospital down Route 17 to Route 1. That section of road currently has 16 traffic lights.

Option B-2 will reduce the mileage to 4.5 miles to transport from the Del Webb Senior Community across the river to Mary Washington Hospital. That section of road currently has 3 traffic lights. The river crossing will shorten travel time by eleven less traffic lights and three miles less of transport time. It will allow the ambulances to get back to the station quicker and back into service, while avoiding the Falmouth Intersection.

13. Establishing a Regional Park will mitigate the impacts to the conservation easements, providing more recreational opportunities, protecting open space and historic sites.