County officials oppose pending VDOT regulations
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Chesterfield County is not accepting new regulations from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) very well. Effective in July, Chesterfield and other local governments will have to forward traffic studies for significant retail, office and residential developments to VDOT for review and comment.

But the review is advisory only, according to the Assistant Secretary of Transportation Jimmy Carr. "This regulation does not prevent local governments from making land use decisions," he said.

But that doesn't make John McCracken, director of Chesterfield's transportation department and a former VDOT employee, any happier.

"I've been working with VDOT for over 30 years," he complained, "and these regulations come as a surprise to me. I wonder if these regulations add anything to the end product. Chesterfield has been asking the state to be more involved with road projects because we are more efficient."

County officials are satisfied with the current system and believe the new regulations could slow down zoning decisions. Typically, road improvements for developments have been the prerogative of local government. McCracken sees the regulations as intruding into Chesterfield's sphere at a time when many say VDOT is walking away from its traditional road building and maintenance responsibilities.

"What the state is saying is we haven't been maintaining the roads so let's dump that problem on local governments," he said. "It's a pretty frustrating system now."

"We've got to get our transportation and land use more closely aligned," argued Carr. "These developments have a significant impact on our transportation network."

Carr says some traffic studies don't measure the impact far enough away from developments. Near county borders, for example, they often fail to assess the effect on neighboring counties.

Senate bill 699, which includes the new regulations, was endorsed by VDOT last year and was part of Gov. Tim Kaine's legislative package. The details were drafted later in 2006. Traffic studies by developers will be required to be sent to VDOT within 10 days of receipt by local governments. VDOT has 45 days for review but could take up to 120 days.

Not all developments would have to be reviewed; the key is the number of vehicle trips generated by them. The regulations would cover residential developments of 100 or more units and more than 100 trips per peak hour of commercial developments.

"By improving the link between land use and planning on the front end, we can reduce the need for long-term investment [in road building]," Carr said.

When presented last year, Mary Anne Curtin, Chesterfield's director of intergovernmental relations, thought the legislation was "innocuous." Before the regulations were drafted, she believed large local governments with "sophisticated transportation departments would be certified" to act independently of VDOT.

"A lot of the bill was already common practice," she observed. "VDOT doesn't have the staffing for this, and the focus was expected to be on emerging growth counties that don't have the staff or expertise like we do, but that didn't occur."