Bike pathways in the Historic Triangle may be on a slow road to improvement, but they are moving forward.
The James City County Planning Commission voted unanimously, with Tim O’Connor (At-large) and Al Woods (Powhatan) absent, to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve an updated Regional Bicycle Facilities Plan on Wednesday. The plan was originally created in 1993 and has evolved over time with an endgame of having an effective bike system in the region.
“Over the years, roads and land uses have changed substantially enough to warrant a wholesale review of the original plan …” reads a staff memo to the commission.
Over the past 10 months, staff members from James City and York counties and the City of Williamsburg have been working to update the plan to reach four main goals: provide bike trails to parks and schools, get rid of dead-end routes, have realistic bike paths in mind and incorporate multi-use paths from the 2011 James City County-approved Pedestrian Accommodation Plan.
To reach the goals, corridors determined to be inappropriate for biking were removed from the James City County portion of the plan. A “share the road designation,” which allowed bikes and cars to share the road due to limited space for bike lanes, was also removed from Bush Neck Road, Menzels Road, Lakeview Drive and Racefield Drive because they are no longer recommended for biking. Additional trails were added to Stonehouse District, and bike accommodations are recommended on the proposed Mooretown Road extension.
Relocated Route 60 in the Grove area has been included on the draft map.
“With this addition, all major routes in Grove will have pedestrian and/or bicycle facilities, and no further additions are recommended,” reads a staff memo to the commission.
Planning Commission Member George Drummond (Roberts) asked staff to contact Newport News staff to determine whether a bike path can be established to run to the Lee Hall area of Newport News from the border of James City County in Grove.
“It’s really a hazardous road and a lot of times you see cyclists ride along there and to me it seems like an accident waiting to happen,” Drummond said.
The commission hosted a public hearing Wednesday, at which five citizens spoke in support of increasing bike paths in the area and supporting the draft update.
One resident asked that paths for recumbent bikes – three-wheeled bikes that are lower to the ground — be examined for safety reasons. She said recumbent riders need wider bike lanes than upright bike riders and tend to appreciate off-road trails more.
A vote on the draft update will be required from the Board of Supervisors to move forward.
Other Commission Business
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend the Board of Supervisors approve rezoning a piece of county-owned and issue a special-use permit for building 28 homes in the Wellington subdivision.
The 15-acre property at 225 Meadowcrest Trail is currently zoned public lands. In November, the board voted 4-1 with Supervisor Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) opposed, to sell the land to Ryan Homes. Ryan Homes is currently the contract purchaser and has negotiated a purchase price with the county.
After the OK from the board last November, the county began to rezone the property.
With the commission’s recommendation, the decision will next go before the Board of Supervisors.
