Hearing on Truck Stop Expected to Draw Full House

ABINGDON, Va. – County officials are expecting a packed house tonight for a Washington County Planning Commission meeting that will include a public hearing on a proposed truck stop.

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 7:30 meeting in the Board of Supervisors meeting room at the County administration building, 205 Academy Drive in Abingdon.

The planning commission will hear public comment on whether to rezone a 4.75-acre portion of the proposed site and grant a special exception permit for a Love’s Travel Center at Interstate 81’s Exit 24. The commission will make a recommendation to the Washington County Board of Supervisors, which is to decide the issue at its June 9 meeting.

“If they have concerns, whether they’re in favor or opposition, they should certainly attend the meeting,” said Cathie Freeman, county building and zoning official.
Freeman said the narrow underpass at Exit 24 probably is the biggest issue, causing concerns that adding a truck stop there could make traffic worse than that at Exit 17 in Abingdon, which is notorious for wrecks and backlogged traffic.

The site’s proximity to Meadowview Elementary School also has been raised as a major concern.

Rick Shuffield, director of real estate and development for Love’s, says he believes the company has thoroughly addressed all the issues.

Freeman says the truck component of the business is the only thing that requires a special exception in the B-2 business zone that already exists on about two-thirds of the proposed site.

“Had they been proposing strictly automobile, we allow outright automobile and motorcycle sales, service, automobile repair garages, automobile service stations with or without convenience stores, and they are by right,” Freeman said. “What’s kicking it over is the fact that we’re dealing with tractor trucks and trailers.”

She said a business catering only to cars could be built without a special exception, as could a shopping center.

She said the controversy over this proposed truck stop is similar to what occurred before the existing truck stop at Exit 29 – also near a school – was built several years ago. The planning commission recommended against that project, but the Board of Supervisors approved it.

“We had so much opposition then – we had a packed house, and the board room downstairs holds almost 300 people – and at that time when we went to the hearings the room was actually packed and people standing along the walls,” Freeman said.

Residents of Meadowview, Glade Spring and Emory say the truck stop would bring increased air pollution, traffic and strangers too close to Meadowview Elementary School, where their children attend. Concerns have also been raised about the effect a large, outside competitor could have on small, locally owned businesses.

The school board voted unanimously last week to oppose the truck stop, and Tom Taylor, who represents the area on the Washington County Board of Supervisors, also has stated his opposition.

“I can’t predict that any of that would happen, but our concern is, once the truck stop is built, if it happens we have to live with it,” said Alan Lee, superintendent of Washington County schools, who said concerns about the unknown impact it would have on the school are what drove the board’s decision.

Lee said school and county officials never envisioned when ground was broken for the school back in 1973 that the current level of traffic would develop on Interstate 81 – and if they were building a school today, they might not put it on its present site, which is less than half a mile from the interchange.

He acknowledges that something worse than a Love’s Truck Stop eventually could come to the exit – but, he said, something better also could be put there – something that doesn’t draw traffic off the Interstate to the area around the school.

Shuffield, however, says an Interstate-based business is logical for the site – and it’s only a matter of time before the site is developed, possibly by someone who’s not a good neighbor like his company is. He says fears about the Exit 29 truck stop never came true.

“With the school they’re talking about all the diesel exhaust and all the problems we’re going to create. In reality the general direction of the wind throughout the entire year runs from the south-southwest, which doesn’t even go in the direction of the school,” Shuffield said. The exhaust issue is being eliminated by new emissions regulations, he added.

“As far as additional traffic we’re going to generate, we are taking all sorts of steps to improve the interchange…so there’s a continual free flow of traffic headed toward the school.”

He said he’s also offered to make improvements to the school’s septic system and mitigate traffic issues the school already experiences when children are being dropped off and picked up from school.

“Honestly, the county should embrace, particularly in today’s economic environment, whatever additional tax revenues and business development they can get,” he said.

“I’ve heard as much positive as I’ve heard negative, but…most of what I’ve heard that’s negative is unfounded fear. And if they are not wanting to have any development happen at the interchange, I would say that’s probably a poor long-term vision. Because all you have to do is look anywhere going up and down an Interstate, and your most vibrant locations are right off the Interstate, and that’s where your services and your tax dollars come from.”

While opinion seems divided on both the planning commission and the board, Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Jack McCrady said that while he’s still approaching the issue with an open mind, he doesn’t think the project will go through.

“I believe it’s [board opinion] split, but I believe that the largest problem that truck stop is going to have is that bridge approach to it,” McCrady said.

“VDOT’s not going to spend $20 million to fix that bridge, and I don’t believe Love’s is going to fix it, either. We know that Meadowview needs a catalyst, but ... it is close to the school, it’s a very narrow road. Roads can be fixed, but that bridge ... I don’t think that they’re going to be able to do that.”

Planning officials, meanwhile, are preparing for tonight’s public hearing – and Freeman says anyone hoping to speak should arrive early and must sign in. In hopes of having enough time to hear everyone, speakers will be limited to three minutes apiece.

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701