Charlottesville City Council voted last night against the construction of the Western Bypass in a 4-0 vote. The abstaining councilor, Satyendra Huja, is also a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is slated to take a consequential vote on July 27th after two hearings.
Huja tells C-VILLE that he “wanted to listen to citizens” before making a decision on the bypass.
UPDATE (4:45pm): We reached out to City Councilor Kristin Szakos for her comments, which she submitted via e-mail:
"Even if I supported the bypass project itself, which I don’t, I would vote against it at the MPO meeting next month because of the undemocratic, public-process-subverting tactics that have been used to get it on our agenda ahead of projects like the Hillsdale Extension that we have decided as a region to prioritize, and that will do more to reduce congestion and serve our community.
"We have had a very public process to develop our regional transportation priorities, supported by expert analyses – all of which determined that the western bypass would be a very expensive way to very minimal gains in transportation efficiency through Albemarle County. We shouldn’t throw all that out and make long-range transportation decisions based on midnight policy switches and backroom deals."