 | The Cavalier daily. Thursday, May 1, 1969 |  |
City Plans 'Sneak' Approval
Of Grady - Gordon Extension
By Ed Nolde
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer
Charlottesville's City Council is
planning to "sneak" approval of the
Grady-Gordon Avenue Extension
past the University community this
summer while few students will be
here to protest, said an informed
but anonymous source to The
Cavalier Daily.
Determined to ignore the opposition
of the University as well as
that of the local residents, City
Council has used questionable procedures
to justify the program.
Traffic counts of the number of
cars using the existing roads were
made last year during the abnormally
high traffic of Easters Weekend
and 4th of July weekend.
Student shoppers, said the
spokesman, would be channeled off
of the route to Barracks Road
Shopping Center to the Downtown
stores if the city fathers' main
wishes are fulfilled.
Gains for the Downtown area
would be relatively inexpensive to
the city because the state and
federal governments will finance 80
to 90 per cent of the costs of the
road.
Economic costs have been
underestimated, said the spokesman.
Grady Avenue homes would
depreciate in value, real estate tax
revenues would fall first as blight
set in, though they would rise later
as service stations and restaurants
built there.
Movement of displaced families
to the suburbs would eventually
require even more expressways in a
never ending vicious circle.
When the road is extended
farther to the Route 29 By-pass,
the overcrowded parking situation
at University Hall would be worsened,
and the proposed Law School
and Graduate Business School
behind Copley Hill would have to
suffer the noise and dust of the
highway.
Originally, the Board of Visitors
approved the proposal, then, under
the urging of the student body,
revoked its approval pending further
information.
Such information includes a
study opposing the alternative of
widening Main Street because of
the costs of an intersection at
Emmet Street and Main. Mary
Munford, the Downtowner Inn, and
the Lady Astor tennis courts would
all be displaced in such a plan.
| The Cavalier daily. Thursday, May 1, 1969 | |