Residents who have been providing input on improving Longhill Road between Route 199 and Centerville Road since October had a look at what their suggestions helped design at a set of public meetings held this week.
On Wednesday and Thursday nights, more than 50 people gathered in Lafayette High School’s auditorium to hear a recap of previous public meetings and to see how that input played into the plan for an improved Longhill Road. The county has been hosting public meetings since October to gather citizen input on how to improve the road, which is currently handling too many vehicle trips per day.
Wednesday provided a town hall-type forum: Citizens stood around plans for Longhill Road on easels and tables making comments and asking questions of county staff and Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. – the design firm contracted to aid in developing the road plan. Kimley-Horn gave a brief presentation including road data, previous citizen comment and a planned design before hearing from citizens again.
The design for the road presented at the meetings took into account activities at previous meetings, where citizens designed their ideal roadways, ranked road priorities and voted on pictures of possible road solutions.
One thing Kimley-Horn Senior Transportation Planner Stephen Stansbery stressed over the course of the two days’ meetings was the road doesn’t need to look the same for the entire corridor.
Bearing that in mind, Stansbery presented a four-lane divided section of road – including a median, sidewalk, multi-use path, shared bike lanes in the roadway and lighting – for the section of Longhill Road between Route 199 and Ford’s Colony Drive. From Ford’s Colony Drive to Centerville Road, Stansbery presented a three-lane road with a continuous left-turn lane dividing two regular travel lanes, a sidewalk and a multi-use path.
“This isn’t my plan. This is a plan you helped create,” Stansbery said.
Part of the plan presented in detail Thursday included an in-depth look at each intersection on Longhill Road. Different treatments were planned, including a roundabout, intersections with and without traffic signals and intersections only allowing left turns. Citizens were asked to provide comments on the intersections so Kimley-Horn can continue to tweak the design into something that will work for the community.
“We’re not here to build consensus … it doesn’t happen. This is the real world,” Stansbery said. He explained Kimley-Horn is looking for citizen input to provide a road design that will control traffic problems now and in the future so the road doesn’t need to be rebuilt later, which may mean some people are unhappy with the design in the end.
“What you see tonight is not what is going to be built in its exact form,” Stansbery said.
The plan Kimley-Horn presented Wednesday included changes to the traffic flow in some intersections, which will have to occur if a median is installed on the road. The plans included:
- Installing traffic lights on Longhill Road at its intersections with Season’s Trace and Warhill Trail
- Building a roundabout and shared driveway for King of Glory Lutheran Church and Wellspring United Methodist Church
- Preventing drivers from turning left onto Longhill Road when leaving Lafayette High School’s main entrance, Lynette Drive, Buford Road, Glenburnie Road, New Point Road, Olde Towne Shopping Center and Kendale Lane
An alternate plan deleted the roundabout, instead including a full-movement intersection, which would allow drivers to make a turn in any direction.
Citizens circled intersections, wrote comments and drew pictures on the plans.
“I don’t want to do a ‘u-turn,’ needs full movement …” one citizen wrote on the Glenburnie and Longhill roads intersection. During Thursday’s presentation, Stansbery presented a slide showing the Kimley-Horn team agreed with this idea.
Other citizens asked for roundabouts in place of traffic signals at Season’s Trace and Centerville Road; Kimley-Horn said Thursday roundabouts would not work in these locations because they could inhibit traffic flow and create a bigger problem down the road.
To date, state funding has been partially allocated toward the section of Longhill Road between Route 199 and Olde Towne Road, but only enough funding is available for the design phase. Part of Kimley-Horn’s task is to plan the project in phases and come up with an implementation plan for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Ellen Cook, a James City County planner.
Once funding is fully allocated toward the road, it will go through several phases before construction: design, environmental analysis, permitting and right of way acquisition. With full funding, it could take four to seven years before the road is fully constructed.
The next step in the Longhill Corridor Study is another public meeting, tentatively planned for sometime the first week of May. Kimley-Horn then plans on compiling all citizen input into a draft document and plan to take to the county’s Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors sometime between May and July.
For more information about the Longhill Corridor Study, visit its website. Information from the February meetings is planned to be uploaded to the site before the end of the month.
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