East Market St improvement meeting to be held Thursday
Brent Finnegan -- July 19th, 2006
Lots of residents like to complain about congestion and poor planning on the east end of town (or as some call it, the corporate side of Harrisonburg). Trying to walk or ride your bike anywhere near there is a joke. Ever tried walking from The Saigon Cafe to Plan 9?
Well, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Metropolitan Planning Organization is laying out a plan to “improve local access,” and possibly put in sidewalks and/or bike lanes along 33 between Vine Street and Keezletown Road. The Metro Planning Organization is a part of the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, operating out of Staunton. Virginia-based engineering firm Draper-Aden Associates are doing the study. They will be presenting their goals at two public meetings in Harrisonburg. They want suggestions and feedback from residents.
In today’s DNR, there was a story about this, but oddly there was no mention of when or where the meetings are going to be held. A lady at the Central Shenadoah Planning District Commission told me there will be two hearings tomorrow, Thursday the 20th: one at 4pm and another at 7pm. The meetings are being held at the Board of Supervisors meeting room, in one of those county administrative buildings across from Roses.
Come to one of the meetings and let your ideas be heard.
-finnegan
That talk about roundabouts and bike paths is exactly how the pro-sprawl, pro-commercial landowner types in northern Virginia get the gullible citizens to sign off on higher density. Give us this, and we’ll give you that, the developers and their supervisor puppets say. 10 years later, the density is there, such as highrise luxury condos choking small towns, but not one walking path, not one bike trail, not one roundabout.
yeah, the residents of fairfax county definitely got screwed out of a lot of that kind of stuff.
the way tom flynn was making the presentation, i could tell that he preferred roundabouts. but the city and county councils may not go for it. like i said, it’s “too european”