University of Virginia Library

Road's Fate Decided Tonight

Approval Of Gordon Route
Rests With City Commission

By Rod MacDonald
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

"All we can do now is sit and
hear the verdict," said Mrs. Edgar
Gunter concerning tonight's
expected action on the proposed
Grady- Gordon expressway.

The City Planning Commission
has scheduled a meeting for 7:30
tonight to decide whether to approve
the four-lane highway recommended
for the Rugby-Road-Grady
Avenue area. Final action
will then be pending on the City
Council's decision.

Meeting Not Open

Tonight's meeting, said Mrs.
Gunter, will not be open to public
opinion. "We hope to have a
spokesman for our group opposing
the plan, but don't know if
they'll let us or if we can get
someone to present our views.

"We may not get another
chance to speak on the plan unless
the City Council has another
open hearing on the special area
concerning the proposed east-west
highway."

The present plan which the
commission is seeking to adopt
calls for a four-lane expressway
to be constructed by 1970 that
would parallel the present Grady
and Gordon avenues and join
Emmet Street at a cloverleaf in
Lambeth Field.

Big Highways

At the last meeting, E. R.
Slaughter spoke for the group
opposing the plan, saying "Big
highways separate communities
like rivers. As soon as this road
is completed, it will be a big
truck route going right through
the University community,
schools, churches; in short, a
major throughway."

Many other speakers, including
Edgar Gunter of the University,
protested the plan on the
grounds that it would ruin the
University community.

No Speakers

The opposition group will have
no chance to speak tonight, however.
Geoff Rubin, who represented
the Inter-Fraternity Council
at the February meeting, told
The Cavalier Daily yesterday that
"They're through listening to us
and will have to make up their
own minds now.

"After contacting concerned
and well informed parties involved,
I predict that the highway
program in total will be instituted.

"I expect that the decision
makers will eventually approve
action on the Gordon—Grady
avenue plan which will divide the
University community.

"Tonight the City planning
commission will adopt a resolution
to be given to the city council
recommending the highway
program in general be accepted.
It will, however, ask that the
Gordon—Grady Avenue area be
restudied."

"The city council in turn, I
feel, will ask the city manager
to study this area. The city manager,
I expect, will ask the state
highway department to 'restudy'
this area. I have reason to believe
that the state highway department
will report to the city
council that they can find no
suitable alternative program.

"The result will probably be
that the original highway program
which displaces students
faculty and citizens of the University
community, takes University
land and directs 'highway'
traffic toward University Hall
will be approved."

McLemore Birdsong, chairman
of the planning commission, emphasized
that a final decision
would be made at tonight's meeting.
"We have studied and restudied
this plan, listened to the
public, the state, and the University.
I feel that we have done
most of our thinking on this
thing, and that the members will
arrive tonight with their minds already
made up.

Soul Searching

"We have considered the public
interest here," he continued.
"I want everyone to realize that
our decision has come as the
result of a great deal of study and
soul-searching, not off the tops
of our heads. We have put a lot
of work into this study."

Dr. Birdsong said that the
street plan would be considered
as a whole and recommended
that the commission pass
it as such. "We have to act on
it as a whole — that's our procedure,"
he noted. "Once the
plan is passed, then we will make
exceptions to it or ask that certain
areas be restudied."

Asked about the article in yesterday's
Daily Progress that said
the planners would pass the street
plan while recommending
"further study of the Grady—
Gordon portion, Dr. Birdsong
said "That's probably right. We
have talked this over, and I'd
say something on that line is to
be expected. We have even studied
three alternate plans—however,
none of these have amounted
to anything."

Opposition to the plan has
come largely from the residents
of the area and the fraternities
in the way of the proposed road.