If you drive Rt. 29 in Albemarle County on a regular basis, you are probably excited about the county's plans to improve travel conditions along the area's busiest commercial corridor. According to The Daily Press, county planners have finished the final draft of Places29, the most extensive transportation and land use master plan in the county's history.
The changes will help prepare Albermarle for future growth, and is based on a "neighborhood model," in which residents would be able to work, shop and use parks within walking distance of where they live.
Albemarle County officials say recent growth trends and the location of available land suggest most new retail in the area will be built in the county’s growth area, not Charlottesville.
The hope is that Places29 will help to improve quality of living for the county's residents. As the plan is implented over the next two decades the enhancements to traffic alone should help to improve property values by making living there a bit more enjoyable.
"Albemarle planners are unveiling a final draft of the most extensive transportation and land use master plan the county has ever seen.
The Places29 plan spells out a vision for what the U.S. 29 corridor in northern Albemarle could look like in coming decades. And its provisions will affect every commuter, county taxpayer, business owner and pedestrian who spends time in the area’s busiest commercial corridor.
For planners, it’s a 'new urbanism' blueprint that seeks to convert an area marked by intense development and thick traffic into one that will see a series of “centers” that function like neighborhoods where people can walk between work, shops, parks and more.
Eight chapters long and in the works for at least four years, the plan could be before county supervisors by the end of the year for a vote that would chart a course for major decisions for decades to come in a segment of the county expected to see the bulk of Albemarle’s future growth.
For local residents such as Eddie Giles, fights with traffic represent the reality of U.S. 29’s past, present and future.
Giles, owner of Albemarle-based Professional Movers, spends much of his days stuck on the highway. He hopes a fix is on the way.
'Sometimes, I do get a little frustrated sitting in traffic. I’m sitting at the light and moving an inch — and an inch,' Giles said. 'Especially if you’re giving a customer a fixed rate, that traffic is on your time. It can cost you.'
Giles is among the tens of thousands of drivers who use the county’s stretch of U.S. 29 on any given day. As growth continues in the county’s development areas, travel time could more than triple for drivers using the U.S. 29 corridor by 2025, according to a local transportation plan cited in Places29."
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Also, check out another story about Places29 by the Daily Press.
