A Targeted Development Area study that would have traffic until 2050 has been abandoned because of cost. A smaller study will examine traffic in the TDA until 2030.
By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has decided to scale down a traffic study that would have looked at transportation needs as far out as 2050 in a Targeted Development Area (TDA) already zoned for growth.
The TDA has more than 2,500 acres centering around Courthouse Road and is an area where there has been over $200 million worth of road improvements over the past 15 years.
The Board, because of the $196,000 cost of the wider study, voted 5-2 on Tuesday for a smaller study on transportation needs between now and 2030 based only on homes and businesses that have already been built or projects that have already been approved for construction.
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That includes a 510,000 square foot data center on Old Potomac Church Road near Stafford Hospital and 343 townhouses already under construction on Courthouse Road west of U.S. Route 1.
Some board members said a wider study can’t really be done now while debate continues over a mixed-use development called Fountain Square that has long been proposed near downtown Stafford that would include another 2,490 residential units.
The approved scaled down study would look into a possible East-West Road to parallel Courthouse Road, and an extension of Mine Road to the Centerport Parkway.
Supervisor Pamela Yeung, who voted against the scaled down study, said the Board should approve the more extensive study projecting out to 2050 rather than “piecemealing all the studies” along the way as they approve more housing and commercial projects.
There is no current estimate on the cost of the scaled down study.
Zoning for the entire Target Development Area allows for construction of 5,440 housing units and 5,500,000 square feet of commercial space within the TDA.
But several supervisors reiterated their opposition to so much development because of increased traffic congestion over the last few years.
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