Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993 TAG: 9302170235
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BY KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
COUNCIL OKS STREET WIDENING
Despite the arguments, despite the options that residents had suggested, Town Council approved a controversial plan Tuesday night to widen Depot Street between North Franklin and West Main streets.A standing-room-only audience left disappointed, but not surprised.
"Losing faith in people, especially friends, hurts, and I for one am hurting," longtime Christiansburg resident Rose Sumner told Town Council.
Sumner told council before the vote that many residents believed council members already had made up their minds.
The $6 million project would widen Depot Street to four lanes. Town leaders and the highway department hope the road will solve downtown traffic problems and help accommodate a projected increase in the number of vehicles in Christiansburg in coming years.
But residents said the road would bring congestion and speeding traffic through residential neighborhoods and past two schools.
Beth Umberger told council she grew up in Blacksburg and saw "that town get ruined" by four-lane roads.
"You're going to do it here. You call it progress. I call it stupidity," she said.
Mike Abraham, who manages a business on Depot Street, submitted to council his own plan for the street, featuring two through lanes and a center turn lane.
The four-lane plan that council approved "was agreed upon 20 years ago when downtown was still vital . . . . It may have been the right idea at the time, but now I think people have other ideas," Abraham said.
Eleven people spoke against the project, and no one spoke for it. However, Town Manager John Lemley read letters from the Montgomery County School Board, the Fire Department, the rescue squad and the highway department supporting the proposal.
Council's vote was 6-1.
Ann Carter, the dissenter, said she voted against the plan because she could see no compromise. "I feel the rights of the neighborhood and residents . . . are far more important to me than speeding traffic through town."
The highway department held a public hearing in December at which people voiced concerns about the idea. Mayor Harold Linkous told the crowd Tuesday that council members had read the transcript of the hearing and considered written comments submitted after the hearing.
Council member Truman Daniel said few of the concerns aired Tuesday were new.
He also said the project has been part of the town's comprehensive and road plans for years. No one showed up at public hearings on the plan in 1975 and 1984, he said. He added that the project will not involve rezoning.
Daniel said the project may not lead to an increase in truck traffic in Christiansburg, as feared by some residents. He said truckers who want to travel between West Virginia and Interstate 81 now use Virginia 100, saving 45 minutes by avoiding Christiansburg.
"Hopefully we won't have any more trucks than we have now," Daniel said.
The Transportation Board is expected to approve the project next month.