Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 18 · column 1 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
(Continued from Page 1)
to find "the least disruptive alternative.” Never did she concede the possibility that a study might find the superhighway unnecessary. MI’m a messenger carrrying the tidings you don’t want to hear... the reality of what’s out there,” Mrs. Watts told the audience which included supervisors, supervisor candidates and other local officials from Fauquier, Loudoun and Rappahannock counties. Virginia ranks fifth among the states in growth rate and 13th in total population, she said. “Yes, a lot of this is happening in the Washington metropolitan area.”
Once a “full dialogue” has identified and resolved the route of the superhighway, then “the dialogue must go on” over access, the transportation secretary continued, noting that these access ramps may have a greater impact on the areas through which the highway passes than the highway itself will have.
Mrs. Watts said that she’s seen the bumper stickers urging: “Don’t Fairfax Loudoun.” “There’s going to be another whole generation of those for each of the counties going out... We have a great need not to Fairfax Loudoun or Fauquier,” Virginia’s transportation secretary acknowledged. But to prevent that, growth must be managed and controlled, she said.
“At this point in time, there’s not a way to stop growth.” Attempts have been made to borrow innovative land use strategies from New York, California and other states, but when they’ve been tried in Virginia, they haven’t been upheld by the courts, Mrs. Watts said. “The courts won’t look at the adequacy of transportation and other services, only at the highest and best use (of the land).”
Maryland may be able to enact a selective sewer moratorium and have it upheld by its courts, “but that has not been the climate in which we operate,” she added.
Replying to the charge that’s she’s already made up her mind and decided a by-pass is needed, Watts conceded, “Yes, I do have an assumption that those numbers (from the state’s $1.2 million study) will show ... we need to have a bypass.” She repeated that the state is looking at a “by-pass or by-passes” to pick up traffic from interstates 81 and 95, routes 270 and 70s. “Do we need two? In what time frame do we need two? ... Anywhere we put it (a by-pass), there are going to be problems. We need to look at where the fewest problems will be,” she said, defending the exDenditure of $1.2
89.0%