Previous Updates/Timeline

Bi-County Parkway Myths and Realities

PWCA has joined with residents across the county, as well as local and regional organizations, to question the benefits and highlight the impacts of the proposed road.

What's the fuss? And why is an organization focused on conservation and stream preservation so interested in a road?

The answer is simple. Infrastructure shapes development, and Prince William has designated a Development Area for growth in the county's Comprehensive Plan.

PWC supports economic development within the Development Area, but the Bi-County Parkway would spur inappropriate development in the Rural Area - where open space fields and forests are supposed to be conserved. Sprawl triggers excessive damage to natural areas, destroying streams and wildlife habitat.  

Roads and transit upgrades are necessary to cope with current congestion and predicted population growth. Taxes have been raised to deal with transportation problems, but the Bi-County Parkway does not address those problems.

Instead, this dumb-growth project diverts taxes to provide a government subsidy for speculative private development in Loudoun County. 

Northern Virginia has a land use problem, as well as a transportation problem. If we continue to stimulate jobs in Loudoun/Fairfax but build houses in Prince William, we guarantee increased traffic congestion in the future - and increased real estate taxes to deal with overcrowded schools in Prince William. 

The Bi-County Parkway is one more developer-sponsored project to "bust" the Rural Area, creating a Wild West county with no logical planning or zoning for growth.

Sprawl damages the environment, crowds schools, creates higher taxes, and increases future traffic congestion.  

The Bi-County Parkway would be a bad investment of scarce transportation funding, compared to other projects that need to be built.

So why would anyone support such a project?  

Charlie Grymes, PWCA Chairman, presented at the April 25 2013 Committee of 100 Program on the proposed Bi-County Parkway. View the powerpoint HERE.

Rethinking the BiCounty Parkway
(also known as the Tri-County Parkway, Northern Extension to Rte 234, Outer Beltway)

Our locally-elected county supervisors have an opportunity to solve existing traffic congestion problems.

Two years ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation pushed hard to build the Bi-County Parkway. All drivers in Prince William have been stuck in traffic, and we often grasp at any straw, but that "road to the wrong side of Dulles" would divert funds away from fixing Route 28 and other higher priorities.

The supervisor from the district that would be most affected by the road, Pete Candland, will initiate the process on Tuesday to remove the road from the county's Comprehensive Plan.

That's a good proposal. We need to focus transportation planning and funding on solutions that will fix the serious traffic congestion problems in Prince William, not subsidize speculative land development projects in Loudoun County.

Deleting the Bi-County Parkway from the Prince William County map, so transportation funding can be directed towards other areas, is only half of the solution.

The land along the Bi-County Parkway route is zoned for agricultural use and is in the County's protected rural area, dubbed the Rural Crescent. It offers a great opportunity for Prince William to implement a Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program, comparable to the program in Fauquier County.

Purchase of development rights would place the land into permanent easement. That would facilitate productive agricultural operations in the Rural Area - and help guarantee that the "vampire road" will never rise from the dead.

Share your views with Prince William Supervisors:

Corey Stewart, Chairman at-Large
[email protected] 

Pete Candland, Gainesville District
[email protected]

Jeanette Lawson, Brentsville District
[email protected]

Marty Nohe, Coles District
[email protected]

Mike May, Occoquan District
[email protected]

Maureen Caddigan, Potomac District
[email protected] 

Frank Principi, Woodbridge District
[email protected] 

John Jenkins, Neabsco District
[email protected]