City Council will hear recommendations about the Route 250 Bypass interchange at McIntire Road during its July 2 meeting. The interchange would facilitate the traffic flow between 250 and the elusive Meadowcreek Parkway (MCP).
 Peter Kleeman warns that if the Meadowcreek Parkway and the 250 interchange are approved and built as separate projects, it might be grounds for a lawsuit. |
But when and if that fabled parkway is built, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) could be vulnerable to a lawsuit. Currently, the MCP and the interchange are being considered as two separate projects. Because of that, the MCP as a whole may be in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). At least that’s the view of Peter Kleeman, a longtime critic of the city’s planning process (and current Council candidate). But he isn’t alone.
City Councilor Kevin Lynch, who’s also a member of the 250/McIntire Interchange Steering Committee, agrees that the larger project could be challenged in court once it’s completed. He’s argued for Council to consider both the interchange and the parkway as the same project.
While the interchange is federally funded, the roadway that will connect it to Melbourne Road through McIntire Park is sponsored by VDOT. The difference in funding, says Lynch, means a higher degree of environmental review for a federally funded project. But dividing what seems like a single project could be considered by those with law degrees and litigious intent to be what NEPA calls “illegal segmentation.”
“If it’s logically one project, it would be inappropriate to divide it into segments purely for the purpose of dodging NEPA,” says Kleeman. Because the roadway is a state-funded project independent of the interchange and its federal dollars, it conveniently skirts NEPA’s tougher federal environmental reviews, instead only undergoing VDOT’s State Environmental Review Process.
Who might file a lawsuit is unclear. Kleeman says anyone directly affected by the construction could go to court but admits that “[legal] standing is always tricky.” And unlike other city parks that might have a parkway run through them, McIntire has no one group of people that would be affected. “There’s no clear constituency for McIntire Park,” says Lynch.
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