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Once again, Spotsy may look at VRE options VRE AND SUMMIT CROSSING

Spotsy Supervisor Gary Skinner presses supervisors to debate joining VRE

Date published: 9/14/2008

By DAN TELVOCK

The debate in Spotsylvania County about joining Virginia Railway Express is back in the laps of the county supervisors.

Supervisor Gary Skinner has asked county staff to bring to supervisors options for joining the commuter rail service.

Stafford County and Fredericksburg are members.

A majority of Spotsylvania supervisors over the years has argued that the service is unreliable, costly and would benefit only a small number of county residents.

Voters approved a 2005 bond referendum that included $12 million for a VRE station. VRE estimates 800 to 1,000 Spotsylvania residents use the service.

Skinner said VRE officials told him the county would not be responsible for building a VRE station.

VRE CEO Dale Zehner said VRE builds stations that basically consist of a platform, canopy and lighting. If the county wants a larger station, like the one in Woodbridge, Zehner said the county would have to build it. Zehner said the county would have to build a parking lot.

At last week's Board of Supervisors meeting, Skinner said he might be able to get a donation for a 600-space parking lot. That donation would probably come from Tricord Cos. in connection with its rezoning proposal for the Summit Crossing mixed-use development near Massaponax.

"We want them to join," Zehner said of Spotsylvania. "We think a station in Spotsylvania has a real advantage to the system and Spotsylvania, and it would help mitigate the problem we have in Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is just overcrowded, and we cannot do any more in Fredericksburg in terms of parking."

When a locality joins VRE, the contract requires a 2 percent gas tax, a mandate that has been a problem for some Spotsylvania supervisors.

Supervisor Gary Skinner has asked staff to bring back options for joining Virginia Railway Express about one week before the Planning Commission gets its first review of Summit Crossing, a proposed 5,925-home mixed-use development phased over 20 years. Officials of Tricord Cos., Summit Crossing's developer, anticipate that a VRE station would be an employment driver for the project. "VRE would help make [Summit Crossing] an employment center," said Tricord spokesman Hart Rutherford. "Do we have to have VRE? No. But I think Spotsylvania is a more attractive location for jobs with VRE." Summit Crossing is proposed for 1,000 mostly rural acres east of Interstate 95 and south of U.S. 17 near Massaponax, Tricord officials have said the project would attract up to 14,000 jobs. When Tricord officials held a community meeting for their project last summer, they said VRE was an important part of making the project work. Tricord will have another community meeting about the project at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at Germanna's Fredericksburg campus.

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Date published: 9/14/2008

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