Renovations would place CHS 143 feet from Route 207’s nearest travel lane. (Photo by Dawn Haun)
By Sarah Vogelsong
CP Reporter
The Planning Commission gave the thumbs-up to a plan that would install a cable guardrail between the renovated Caroline High School and Route 207 for safety reasons.
The guardrail, which will be built to Virginia Department of Transportation standards, will stretch along most of the front of the school, between the exit and entry lanes to the front parking lot. A rendering of the proposal from OWPR, the architecture and engineering firm overseeing the CHS renovations, shows three cables strung between a series of posts.
The need for a barrier between the school and Route 207 was first raised when the School Board applied for a special exception that would allow the renovated CHS to sit 43 feet closer to the road.
Currently, the front of the school is 186 feet from the nearest travel lane. Plans for the new school will decrease this distance to 143 feet.
In considering the application this past summer and fall, both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors expressed concern about vehicles running off the roadway and into the front of the building.
Consequently, at the recommendation of the Planning Commission, the supervisors approved the setback on the condition that a physical barrier be installed as protection.
With little discussion, the commissioners at their Feb. 19 meeting approved OWPR’s plan. Although a public hearing was held on the matter, no one spoke.
On a night when temperatures dipped down to record-breaking lows, the Commission made short work of its agenda. The group also approved a re-subdivision of 13 lots in Ladysmith Village, which were originally planned as live-work spaces, into 14 lots with townhouses and two live-work units on the corner of Library Boulevard and Clara Smith Street.
Finally, the Commission forwarded the county administrator’s suggested five-year Capital Improvements Program to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of approval.
Total funds requested by all county departments for the period 2016–2020 were roughly $65 million, to go toward improvements to both infrastructure and equipment. The county administrator’s plan whittles this number down by almost half, to $37.5 million.
The largest expenditures in the plan would go toward public utilities infrastructure, fire/rescue equipment, and public works infrastructure, which includes improvements to the Bowling Green and Ladysmith fire stations and the proposed Carmel Church transportation station.
Zoning technician Lisa Zech noted that most of county administrator Charles Culley’s recommendations “lean towards public safety.”
Improvements to fire/rescue equipment would over five years replace two tankers, three engines, and six ambulances—including, in fiscal year 2016, Port Royal’s 31-year-old pumper/tanker.
No comments were made during a public hearing on the plan.
Chairman Les Stanley and Western Caroline Commissioner Bob Fiumara both expressed their appreciation for the inclusion of the Commission in consideration of the plan. The Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the matter in March.