Manassas National Battlefield Park
Bull Run Civil War Round Table
Friends of the Manassas National Battlefield Park
Piedmont Environmental Council
Virginians Against the Western Transportation Corridor
The Northern Virginia Sierra Club Sprawl Activists have established a site on geocities. Through them CARD obtained a copy of the "Developer Dollars" report that shows the connection between campaign funding for local officials and how much of it comes from developer interests. The report was summarized in the Washington Post. (Note: CARD would like to post this report on this site; we have some technical issues to resolve first and we are still unsure as to the copyright status.)
We often focus on the local issues relative to the Western Transporation Corridor, and it certainly seems that there are a few. At the same time, there is a regional effort driven by the Washington Board of Trade and others to construct an "Outer Beltway". The concept is not currently being marketed in that fashion; it currently is more politically correct to put the project in one piece at a time (aka The Eastern Bypass, the Western Bypass, and the Inter-County Connector.) See what our brothers and sisters in Maryland think of the Inter-County Connector! See how this all is being marketed to the region--for instance, this is not a "study" it is a "planned road"--under the general heading of regional growth and sprawl in the area the Washington Post gathered a number of items. In the area of transportation a future project map clearly shows the concept of a piecemeal implementation of an outer beltway--the discussion on the Western Transportation Corridor includes an article published in the spring of 1997 at least citing the origins of the project as a campaign promise of the outgoing Governor Allen.
For those that haven´t gotten out of your car to read them, the historical marker tour is particularly interesting. Its a good time of year to get out and get around some!
Prince William County Historical Commission
A group called Taxpayers for Common $ense has taken some exception to the Western Transportation Corridor Study. You can see their description of the total waste of public funds the WTCS represents in the Road to Ruin report.
Resources
Search for stories about the Western Corridor in the Washington Post. This site provides a search engine for the last 14 days of the Post, searching on "Western Corridor" seems to find most of the major stories.
Search for stories about the Western Corridor in the local Journal newspapers. This link references by date and region, there also is a generic search site.
Worried about what happens if the Western Corridor goes through your living room? It doesn´t happen to most people on a daily basis--what can you expect? The state maintains some searchable databases that you might find interesting; the first lets you search the Virginia State Code. If you look around in the Virginia Code for such topics as condemnation and eminent domain you might find some surprises. (Just make sure you spell them right). The state also maintains searchable databases on the Administrative Code (rules for state agencies) and on Bills and Resolutions. CARD has pulled some data from the state code database that we have found particularly interesting, you may wish to see our extracts from the state code. One thing that confuses us is how VDOT will comply with this code if $16,000 per acre is what they plan on paying for the acquisition of residential properties; see Dr. Moler´s report.
Other Sites:
Some sites that may provide some insight into some of the developmental pressures on the area. The first link is frames, if your browser doesn´t support them it could be trouble.
Clearly there is a need here, but it seems to be more the radial need and not the north-south one.
Dulles Corridor Transportation Study
Its hard to put the right words in front of this reference...See if you see a need in here, pay attention to the impacts.
Western Transportation Corridor Study
You can tell them what you think of their study, but we certainly don´t know what use they will make of your opinion
email:travesky@aol.com
Notice the relationship of the study area and the road...the study area sure seems to detour to the north. The Route 29 relocation study is in theory part of this, but you may have difficulty finding it in this summary.
I-66 Corridor Study
You may not be clear exactly on what the bounds and interrelationship of the "Outer Connector Study" is exactly...
Projects General Listing
No reference would be complete without some summary of the Disney´s America Project. Some have speculated that Disney is just "on hold" until the Western Corridor arrives--it would provide Interstate Access directly to I-95 south and Dulles Airport north for properties that Disney and others have explored. CARD would like to emphasize that this highway was not in the plan for Disney, and if it wasn't needed for Disney (which had the potential to be the biggest development ever to possibly be imagined for PWC) then this road is certainly not needed now!
Report on Proposed Disney's America Project
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