Officials Scrap Plan For Route 9 Bypass

Loudoun County officials have ruled out building a Route 9 bypass around the town of Hillsboro, despite bumper-to-bumper traffic through town at rush hour and predictions that the roadway could see crippling congestion all day by 2030.

On Monday, the Planning Commission voted 7 to 1 to take out any reference in the county's proposed master transportation plan to the Hillsboro Bypass, which would have run from Route 9 to Route 7 in Purcellville through an area dominated by farms and open space.

The commission also recommended doing away with a proposed Route 15 bypass, which would have circumvented the town of Lucketts.

A day later, several supervisors concurred with the commission's decision. At the supervisors' meeting Tuesday, Supervisor James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) proposed that the board take formal action to abandon the Hillsboro Bypass plan, but he withdrew his proposal after learning that the Planning Commission had taken a similar action.

But at least two supervisors -- Mick Staton Jr. (R-Sugarland Run) and Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles) -- said the bypass was worth considering to prevent tiny Hillsboro from being overrun by traffic or even destroyed.

Route 9 runs right through Hillsboro, a historic town close to the West Virginia border. The only other solution proposed by Michael Baker Corp., an engineering firm hired by the county to prepare a draft of the master transportation plan, was to widen Route 9 through town.

"We have a traffic problem. It's not going away," Staton said. "We need to make a choice, and I for one am not in favor of taking any option off the table."

Supervisor Jim Clem (R-Leesburg) had supported considering the project but said Tuesday that he changed his mind after talking with residents.

Burton said there were other options in addition to the ones floated by Michael Baker Corp. -- including some on the West Virginia side, where much of the Route 9 commuter traffic originates. Other opponents of the bypass have suggested building traffic circles, encouraging telecommuting and increasing bus service to relieve Route 9 congestion.

The focus should be on "keeping it a rural highway, which is what it's supposed to be," said Sally Pfoutz, who owns a 35-acre farm that she said would have been in the path of the bypass.

Pfoutz was among dozens of residents who attended Monday's Planning Commission public hearing to speak out against the bypass, pushing the end of the meeting to about midnight.

"Obviously we would have preferred that the board vote to accept Mr. Burton's initiative" because it would have felt more final, Pfoutz said Tuesday. "But we're glad the Planning Commission listened to the more than 50 people who spoke at the Planning Commission meeting."

The Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors will vote later on the master transportation plan as a whole.