Forget 7/690; Milan does a 180

By Valerie Cury

At the Nov. 14 Purcellville Town Council meeting, during a vote to approve an easement for the Mayfair community, council members expressed a sense of urgency to amend both the Town’s Transportation Plan and Comprehensive Plan. This amendment would eliminate the Northern Collector Road and the extension of O Street from both plans, to ensure that the extension of Mayfair Crown Drive to Fields Farm Road does not happen.

However, just two weeks later at the Nov. 28 Purcellville Town Council Work Session, this same sense of urgency all but disappeared.

Vice-Mayor Chris Bertaut began the Nov. 28 work session by requesting an agenda amendment regarding suggested changes to the Town Wide Transportation Plan. During the Nov. 14 town council meeting, council members decided immediate action was needed to eliminate all references to the Northern Collector Road in both the Town Wide Transportation Plan and the Comprehensive Plan.

Addressing the proposed amendment to the agenda, Mayor Stan Milan said, “That’s not new business. That’s continued from previous meetings.”

“Point of order, Mr. Mayor,” said Bertaut. “One can introduce new business at any time under Robert’s Rules of Order, and it’s not a continuation because we did not schedule it for this meeting.”

Milan snapped back, “We covered it in the previous meetings, so therefore it’s not the first time we’ve heard it.”

Town attorney John Cafferky weighed in saying, “The Vice Mayor is making a motion to amend the agenda as presented. That would need to be seconded and then voted on by town council.”

The motion to add the discussion of the Northern Collector Road – as well as the review of a town letter to VDOT regarding the Rt. 7/690 Interchange – failed with Mayor Stan Milan and Council Members Caleb Stought, Mary Jane Williams and Erin Rayner voting no. Vice Mayor Chris Bertaut and Council Members Carol Luke and Boo Bennett voted in favor of the discussion items. All members of the town council ran on not supporting the NCR.

Regarding the Rt. 7/690 Interchange Ordinance of Vacation, Bertaut said in his council comments that he would like to hear how vacating the easement, “particularly the floodplain easement”, would be possible as “the easement is within the Historic Corridor Overlay District.

“Most people are most familiar with the downtown Historic Corridor Overlay District, but there are several others located about town. One of the issues of course is there’s a lot of language in that Article 14a that regards placement of structures including anything manmade – which would include an off-ramp.”

Bertaut said, “This is not intended to detract from the county’s efforts to move forward with the Rt. 7/690 Interchange. There’s only a tiny part of this that’s within the control of the Town of Purcellville – that is the off ramp eastbound that runs through the Catoctin Meadows subdivision.

“I would also note that the land in question is also part of the common area property of the local Homeowners Association and can’t be released without the consent of the HOA. And if it’s not enough cause for concern the town would need a sign off from our floodplain administrator.”

Bertaut noted that currently the floodplain has changed, but the plan has not yet been updated to reflect the change.

At the Nov. 14 town council meeting, during a vote to approve easements for Mayfair Crown Drive and Fields Farm Road – which staff said were necessary to get to the new planned water tower – Council Member Ron Rise Jr. said, “We should make the intention clear that there’s no intention to connect this road [Mayfair Crown Drive and Fields Farm Road, which could become the Northern Collector Road]. We should take immediate action after [the easement] is approved to amend the Comprehensive Plan and update the Transportation Plan to reflect those intentions.”

Council Member Erin Rayner, a resident of the Mayfair community, agreed. “If we vote to approve this [we need] immediate action to update the amendment to the Comprehensive Plan to say that road will not go through. We’ll put it to an end – that argument. So, I think it’s a good idea.”

Milan also agreed, “I would like to echo the comments of Council Member Rise. It’s imperative that we do make known that the intent is not to connect to the Mayfair Crown Drive.”

Summing up the situation, Council Member Boo Bennett said she would not vote for the easement. “These easements are the very same that existed for the [proposed] ball fields.

“These easements are the very same that were put in place to extend Mayfair Crown Drive to Fields Farm Road, known as the Northern Collector Road. These easements, if approved, lay the infrastructure for Mayfair Crown Drive becoming a thorofare, with estimates of 2,000 cars or more a day. This is a great concern for the residents of Mayfair,” said Bennett.

“The world judges us by our actions, not our intentions,” she concluded.

Bertaut said, “We as a town council need to commit to amending the comprehensive plan forthwith as well as the transportation plan.”

Foreshadowing what would happen just 14 days later, Bertaut warned, “If you, the residents, are looking in on a meeting a few weeks hence when we vote on this … we have to have a public hearing … when it’s up for a vote – if you see a town council member vote against those amendments – well then you know that their commitment is not to the health, safety and welfare of this town’s residents. But it lies somewhere else.”

Acting on the urgency expressed just two days earlier by the Mayor and Town Council members, at the Nov. 16 Planning CommissionMeeting, Bertaut said he reviewed the 2009 Town Wide Transportation Plan “specifically to find all references to the Northern Collector Road and to the O Street extension, which is an extension of O Street from 21st Street to Hatcher Avenue.

“What I am looking for is a motion from the planning commission to strike all recommendations to support the NCR and the O Street extension, which is also unnecessary.”

Bertaut said, “This transportation plan was developed through the services of a professional engineering firm and the primary purpose of their recommendations … was to improve the flow through the transportation network.”

He said at that time the Mayfair Community did not exist. If the Northern Collector Road were to be built today, “it would be traversing a fairly large population center in our town – with young children.” He reiterated that the residents do not want the extension — if Mayfair Crown Drive is extended to Fields Farm Road, it would become a thoroughfare.

He suggested that the planning commission hold a public hearing to amend the transportation plan. “We don’t want traffic to freely flow through Mayfair.”

Addressing the Planning Commission’s Nov. 16 discussion to amend the Town’s Transportation Plan, Milan said on Nov. 28 that he was “made aware through the newspaper” about the planning commission moving forward with “the process to remove the Northern Collector Road from the Transportation Plan.”

“I want to emphasize that the Committees, Commissions and Boards are an advisory body and not a legislative body. In order for these things to be moved forward, it needs to be brought to the town council to be discussed and voted on … The CCB’s are not to task our legal department nor staff to conduct any business outside of approval by the town council,” warned Milan.

The Town Council voted 6-1 to hold a public hearing on Jan. 9 to vacate the floodplain easement on the 14.2-acre Catoctin Meadows wetland/floodplain/forested parcel. Council Member Boo Bennett voted against, while Milan changed his previous “no” vote.

The county has agreed to put in three box culverts at a cost of $6 million. The current culverts are undersized, and the new culverts will “allow the water to flow more freely” through 21st Street instead of overtopping the road, according to Dale Lehnig, director of Engineering, Planning and Development.

“It could lessen the amount of flooding because that road sort of acts like a dam right now … So, if it goes through the culvert, it goes downstream a little bit faster,” said Lehnig.

The county will also pay for a floodplain study at an estimated cost of $233,000.

Milan concluded, “I am not perverse [sic] in the floodplains, but I know when it happens it’s not good. Any assistance monetarily and study-wise would be, to me, a benefit to the town.”