The consent agenda for the May 14, 2024 meeting of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors included four separate items to either ratify or authorize staff initiatives to seek state or federal funds to advance numerous transportation projects (Items 5B through 5D) or to endorse the final design of a significant and somewhat contentious highway project (Item 5A).  Item 5B alone ratified the pre-applications for seven separate highway projects to seek SMART SCALE funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation. 

Since Active Prince William has repeatedly advocated for greater transparency and public input opportunities in transportation decision-making, including which projects are advanced for new funding requests and how proposed projects are designed, our co-chair, Allen Muchnick, delivered the following statement during Public Comment Time at the 2 pm meeting.

Public Comment at the May 14, 2024 2 PM Meeting of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, Statement of Allen Muchnick, Active Prince William Co-Chair

Good afternoon.  I’m Allen Muchnick, co-chair of Active Prince William and a City of Manassas resident.

Under Items 5B through 5D on today’s consent agenda, you authorized (or ratified) new submissions for transportation project grant applications that had never been the subject of a prior public hearing.  Moreover, this public comment period was only held after the consent agenda was already approved.

Thus, the public was given little or no opportunity to influence the mix of projects submitted for funding or to ascertain that the project scope and amount of funds requested would be adequate to suitably accommodate all travel modes.

Active Prince William has repeatedly asked that the Board of County Supervisors require the Prince William County Department of Transportation to hold advertised public hearings to present its proposed new transportation funding submissions for public input before they are submitted for the Board’s approval.

Such annual or semi-annual public hearings could be held at a standalone venue or at a Planning Commission meeting.

Thank you for considering this input.