Help Defeat the Loop Road… For Good!

We need your help to defeat the proposed loop road.  Please attend a public information session on Thursday, January 19 from 4:30 – 6:30 pm at the Rockingham County Government Center or email your loop road concerns to Bonnie Riedesel, bonnie@cspdc.org  before February 2nd.
 
 
What’s going on?
Over the holidays, the Harrisonburg Rockingham Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) released their updated transportation plan which includes a wish list of highway projects, including multiple sections of a loop road around the city that have long been discussed as an I-81 bypass. 

 The community has rejected such a bypass multiple times – in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2006 – with hundreds of residents turning out at hearings in opposition, stating concerns about impacts on the County’s productive farmland, Civil War battlefields, and the high taxpayer cost of servicing the sprawling development that comes with new highways.
 
What happens next?
The MPO will hold a public information meeting to unveil the maps and answer questions on Thursday, January 19 from 4:30 – 6:30 pm at the Rockingham County Government Center in the Community Development Department Meeting Room. The format will be an open house.  They will also allow public comments to Bonnie Riedesel, bonnie@cspdc.org until February 2nd.  MPO is made up of officials from Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Bridgewater, Dayton, Mount Crawford, and VDOT.  On March 15 the MPO Policy Committee will meet to approve some version of the transportation plan.
 
Why now?
These planning documents get recycled every time there is an update. When the MPO plan is revised they carry over what was in the last plan.  When the comprehensive plan is updated they carry over what was in the MPO plan.  When the I-81 plan is updated they carry over what was in the MPO and comprehensive plan.  And so on until a road project has a life of its own.  Now is our chance to get it out of the MPO plan for good.
 
Do we need a bypass? NO!

• A Harrisonburg bypass is not needed to serve the rural areas that make Rockingham Virginia’s top agricultural producer.  In fact, a by pass through the county’s prime farm land would increase rural development pressure in direct conflict with the county's Comprehensive Plan.
  
  
• A Harrisonburg bypass won’t make it any easier for local people get to work.  Bypasses enable through travelers to avoid an area, they generally don’t help with local traffic congestion.
  
  
• A Harrisonburg bypass on long-range plans hurts our region’s ability to plan for and fund the sensible road projects we really need. The Stone Spring (Southeast) Connector now underway and similar needed projects should not be hampered by an unnecessary bypass.
  

What can I do?
Go to the hearing January 19 and insist “Enough is Enough.” Tell planners and MPO members to eliminate any and all segments for a Harrisonburg bypass (segments 22A, 22B, 26, 81A and 81B) and destructive projects in the Dayton area (segments 21, 39, and 77B).