Members of the Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) are looking for ways to stay relevant despite new limitations on their responsibilities.
After County Manager Mark Schwartz directed the committee to focus less on individual capital projects, members are discussing working through commissions that report to the County Board to provide input on issues they deem important.
“We have natural allies” on several commissions, PAC member Jim Feaster said at a Nov. 19 meeting.
As a committee rather than a commission, PAC reports to Schwartz. In March, the county manager told both the PAC and the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) that staff time was too limited for the intense oversight the panels had conducted in the past.
What some members of each committee saw as a demotion was confirmed at a contentious meeting with county staff in October.
Many on the Bicycle Advisory Committee reacted angrily, with some calling for mass resignations and the creation of a nonprofit advocacy group to replace the committee.
Reaction from the Pedestrian Advisory Commission has been more muted. Committee chair Eric Goodman and other members seem to want to work within the more limited scope they have been given.
Goodman said committee members need to “keep our eyes and ears open” for projects moving through the planning stage where input on pedestrian concerns could be valuable.
“A lot of times the window [for feedback] is pretty tight,” Goodman said.
Input could be provided via individual advocacy or having members work through entities like the Transportation Commission, Planning Commission and site-plan review committees for specific projects.
David Earley, the Park and Recreation Commission’s liaison to the committee, said it would be wise for members to first “spend some time talking about what the priorities are.”
“There’s dozens of private development projects. There’s dozens of transportation projects. Some are going to be more important than others,” Earley said.
At the Nov. 19 meeting, Goodman said he would be willing to serve as a clearinghouse to connect individual members serving as liaisons on specific projects. PAC member Pamela Van Hine said she’d support that.
“You have the expertise … to know which ones are important and which ones aren’t,” she told Goodman.
One project on the committee’s radar at the moment is the Virginia Department of Transportation’s study of the stretch of Langston Blvd between N. Lynn and N. Veitch streets.
The study aims to assess potential safety, operational transit and bicycle/pedestrian improvements along a mile-long stretch of roadway. It carries about 15,000 vehicles per day, with speed limits of 30 mph and 40 mph.
