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:While we regret being unable to attend tonight's public hearing, the City of Falls Church's Citizens' Advisory Committee on Transportation (CACT) wishes to provide for your consideration the following comments on the creation of a Northern Virginia Regional Transportation Authority. We are dismayed at the disgraceful approach to public participation in this process. Notification of the December 7 meeting was not adequate and its scheduling on a Friday evening is most inconvenient. Further, although the Study Committee included nine "citizen" members, more than half of these are elected officials and the rest represent pro-business interests. There is no representation from citizen groups in any respect. We do not support the regional authority's apparent approach to addressing the region's transportation problems through road, highway and bridge construction and capacity increases on the suburban fringe. Not only will such projects not improve our region's problems, it will exacerbate them by facilitating sprawling development patterns and hindering reinvestment in established communities like Falls Church. Instead, we support approaches that promote alternative transportation
strategies and stimulate investment in established communities. We
support smarter growth strategies that link development to transit.
We support spending existing funding on transit, pedestrian and bicycle
needs. Please consider projects that support communities and neighborhoods
as opposed to sprawl and disinvestment.
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