The Shortline 3-1-24
Stroad reconfiguration on South Main • Charlottesville’s zoning plan to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from gentrification • Land use reform is key to carbon emissions reduction efforts
Harrisonburg Public Works is seeking public input on a plan to reconfigure South Main Street between Mosby and Erickson. There were over 120 reported car crashes along this portion of Route 11 between 2013 and 2019, with most incidents occurring when a driver entered or exited a parking lot.
This stroad, just north of the aptly nicknamed “Motor Mile,” is only a few blocks from the new Rocktown High School scheduled to open next year. The Daily News-Record reported that “the project will necessitate removing bike lanes from the planned project area to accommodate the proposed concrete median. However, staff also mentioned that the bike lanes currently on that stretch of Main Street are unsafe in their current form, at only two to three feet of marked pavement.”
Most of these changes on South Main are to prevent car-on-car collisions, but we need ways for people to get around safely without having to be inside a car. With all the curb cuts in and out of drive thru fast food joints, this stretch of Main Street is about as pedestrian-hostile as stroads get. The removal of the (admittedly inadequate and unprotected) bike lanes near RHS makes the Bluestone Trail extension all the more necessary and urgent. Public Works is planning to apply for SMART SCALE funding to fund the trail extension (see attached PDF below for details).
For those who can’t drive or afford a car, and have to walk anywhere near the intersection of Main and Mosby, may the odds be ever in your favor.
The Valley
The HRCSB’s Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) division is expanding a program focused on chronically homeless stable homes in the community.
PSH was recently allocated federal funding to expand its landlord program, which works with landlords to accommodate homeless people into their units. (WHSV)
Harrisonburg City Council approved spending $117,870 dollars in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funds to install a 50 kilowatt solar system on the Turner Pavilion rooftop. (The Citizen)
Davarian Baldwin, author of the book In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities will be speaking at the Massanutten Regional Library this coming Tuesday, March 5 at 5pm. (MRL)
Harrisonburg City Public Schools will have its first ever electric school buses. The city’s department of public transportation received the two electric vehicles on February 29th. (WHSV)
The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors is considering whether or not to allow Frazier Quarry to expand operations to its land on Buttermilk Creek Road. Supervisors said they will continue to address the existing traffic issues to make the area safer before voting on the special use permit. (WHSV)
With the help of Harrisonburg’s public works greenspace manager, Keister Elementary was granted $30,000 from the Department of Forestry to help fund three new outdoor learning spaces. (Daily News-Record)
The BRITE Bus Stop and Pedestrian Improvements Project includes several pedestrian, bus stop, and intersection improvements at three locations – two in Augusta County and one in the city of Waynesboro. (VDOT)
Virginia
Charlottesville’s new zoning ordinance includes an innovative strategy for protecting vulnerable neighborhoods from gentrification. The new zoning levels the playing field between market-rate and nonprofit developers by giving nonprofits the ability to distribute land costs over more homes. (Housing Forward Virginia)
The Blacksburg Town Council may work to add density to downtown housing. In recent meetings, the council has put much of the onus for creating new housing on Virginia Tech, as the school’s continued growth has been a large factor related to housing price inflation. (The Roanoke Times)
SB 544 would prevent localities in Virginia from implementing certain new short-term rental requirements. However, it would not overturn requirements already in place. (The Virginian-Pilot) Sen. Bagby, the bill’s sponsor, received $5,000 from Airbnb last year.
Legislation that would have restricted Virginia localities’ ability to ban or cap development of solar projects is dead for the year after a House subcommittee voted Tuesday to carry the proposal over to 2025. (Virginia Mercury)
Legislation did not advance that would allow universities the option to install school crossing zones on campuses, although pedestrian injuries continue to rise throughout the state. (The Virginian-Pilot)
With data center development surrounding the Hiddenwood Lane neighborhood in Arcola, 16 homeowners are seeking to rezone their properties so they can sell them to data center developers. They say the rezoning is their only option to escape the “heavy industrial construction and deforestation” that has caused safety hazards and impacted their quality of life. (Loudoun Times-Mirror)
Richmond is one of the few cities where transit systems have regained pre-pandemic ridership thanks to going fare-free, but the loss of bus fare revenue amounts to more than $8 million a year. The authority is considering asking for tax-deductible contributions from employers such as Amazon whose employees benefit from free rides. (Virginia Mercury)
The Staples Mill Road Station in Henrico County was Amtrak’s most used train station in the Southeast last year. There were roughly 425,000 riders at the station last year, which exceeds 327,000 in Alexandria and 281,000 in Charlotte, NC. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
DC Capital Bikeshare saw a 17% increase in overall ridership from January 2023. Users of the cycling system once again showed a slight preference for e-bikes, which made up 51.2% of all trips in January. (Greater Greater Washington)
Elsewhere
New analysis finds that by encouraging better-located, less car-dependent communities, we can solve the nationwide housing shortage while dramatically cutting pollution. Land use reform could reduce as much pollution as our most ambitious vehicle electrification policies. (RMI)
While there has been a slight uptick in new home construction, the U.S. is short 7.2 million homes according to a new report. Between 2012 and the end of last year, 17.2 million new households formed, but only 9.98 million single-family houses were built in the same period. (Newsweek)
Rents shot up 23.9% between the beginning of 2020 and the start of of 2023 and home prices rose 37.5%. Home prices across the U.S. rose 5.5% over the past year in December 2023 and they are projected to increase 2.8% year over year by December 2024. (Florida Phoenix)
A severe lack of affordable housing has prompted Oregon lawmakers to consider chipping away at a 1970s law that made the state a national leader in leveraging land use policy to prevent suburban sprawl and conserve nature and agriculture. (ABC News)
In 2016 Rhode Island Housing warned that the state had to add roughly 34,000 to 40,000 housing units over the next decade to meet the needs of the population. But so far only about 18,000 units have been added. The result has been an explosion in housing prices. (WPRI)
The federal cap on Private Activity Bonds (PABs) creates a significant barrier to expanding overall affordable housing supply. By exempting affordable housing from the state volume cap, we can build more housing in states that are fully utilizing their volume cap. (Federation of American Scientists)
Grocery stores scaled to small towns or mixed-use developments are a key to rebuilding urbanism. (Resident Urbanist)
Farmers are seeing long-term solar leases as a less permanent use of their land than selling the land for residential housing or warehouse development. (WESA)
How do solar farms impact soil health? It’s a question that a master’s student is exploring at a central Pennsylvania site. (Penn Today)
Dallas: The elimination of parking minimums could be one of the most significant new drivers in restaurant and other retail development in decades. (D Magazine)
A study published in Civil Engineering and Architecture focused on how certain measures can make roads safer by slowing down cars, especially in cities. Three ways to calm traffic: speed tables, chicanes (curvy roads), and making roads narrower. (Urbanism Speakeasy)
Should you give scooters a second chance? From a climate perspective, today’s ultraefficient durable e-scooters are among the cleanest vehicles you can ride, and new technology may make them safer than their forebears. (The Washington Post)
Greenhouse gas emissions from e-bikes are much lower than those from either gasoline-powered or electric cars. Over 100 cities and states have or plan to launch e-bike incentive programs, most funded by energy or environment initiatives. (Fast Company)
A new Kalamazoo rideshare service hopes to decrease carbon emissions, but also increase transportation accessibility. The Creamery, a mixed-income apartment complex in Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood, will be the home base for the car-sharing program. (WKZO)