Route 9 Bypass Back on The Table

Some Hillsboro residents said they were concerned that the supervisor who heads the board's transportation and land use committee, Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run), favors the bypass. Staton did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.

Clem said the bypass wasn't a "burning" or "locked-in-my-brain" issue. But it is a more realistic plan to ease congestion, he said, than widening Route 9 to four lanes.

"Do I want it done? No, I don't want to see a four-lane road going across the landscape," said Clem, a member of the board's public safety and transportation committees. "But drive out there. There is no way I will live long enough to see enough money given to us to acquire all the right of way that we need to take Route 9 and widen it. And if we were to get that money, what are you going to do when you get to Hillsboro?"

Widening Route 9 in Hillsboro would destroy the town's charm, Clem said.

"Hillsboro is a beautiful little town, and you don't want to disturb it in any way," he said.

"So I've said, recognizing that we want to preserve Hillsboro at all cost, you need to probably bypass it. And if you are going to entertain an idea like that, you need to look at it now. Don't wait until the land out there gets developed."

Some Hillsboro residents, however, are resisting the notion that development is inevitable in their corner.

"A bypass would simply be a magnet for development," said Mayor Roger L. Vance, who spoke at the meeting. "Hillsboro is a great place because of the context of what it is. It's the rural countryside. It's a little village from the 18th and 19th centuries. So if we get surrounded by development, that's not a good thing."

Vance has long complained that tanker trucks rambling down Route 9 are a danger to his community; some are so wide they can barely squeeze through town. Vance has proposed a county ban on trucks running through the town, but he has been unsuccessful. He has gathered support -- and some funding -- for a plan that would discourage commuters from entering Hillsboro by building a roundabout at each end of town.

Burton urged the Hillsboro residents at the meeting to make their sentiments clear to the supervisors.

"Numbers count with them," he said. "So all I can say is, raise hell."

Clem, a former Leesburg mayor, already has weighed some of the arguments by opponents of the proposal.

Of the contention that the highway would pave over parts of the countryside, he said, "Hey, they're correct! You know, I can't argue."

Of the prediction that the bypass would increase traffic: "Well, I can't come up with an answer that would counter theirs. You know, they have a good argument."

Of the possibility that the project would make houses along the route difficult to sell, he said: "It puts [homeowners] in an awkward position. It could devalue your house."

Even so, Clem said, the bypass should be considered.

"We are just in the discussion phase," he said. "We'll have a public hearing -- probably several public hearings. And in the end result, we'll do something."

A public hearing has been scheduled for June 18.