Development Delays

Some thoughts I have regarding our area’s changes in geography and some pictures to go along with them…

I happen to live in an area that is experiencing a lot of development. In the next 3 months, about 3 ½ miles from my house, we will have a Target and later this year we will have a WalMart. We will also be getting one of the chain restaurants (Applebees, I think), and at least one home improvement chain store. Currently we have to drive about 15 miles to the nearest ones. As with just about anything in life, there are benefits to this and there are costs.

Benefits of development: Shopping for groceries, household necessities, and clothing will be easier. I’m also hoping for a pizza place that delivers. That might sound trivial, but it’s an adjustment for me to live somewhere that I can’t have a pizza delivered to my house!

Costs of development: Traffic will increase along the major road we use to get into town. In 3.5 miles of main road we travel on, 2 new traffic lights will be in operation within the next few months, a new traffic light was put into operation last year, and another is planned within the next year or so. Where we used to have 2 traffic lights we will eventually have 6. Not that our area has ever been “rural” while we lived here, but all the traffic and other development that is going to eventually take place along the main road will bring more of the urban sprawl that many of us who moved here are trying to avoid.

I do have another option for my driving route into town, but it is not always available. It involves driving over a low bridge that crosses the Shenandoah River. After heavy rains or during periods when snow is melting it floods.

I’ll compare my two driving options:

Option A (driving along the main road) is a ten mile drive that takes about 20 minutes. There are 2 bridges over the forks of the Shenandoah River to take, and 10 traffic lights.
Option B (over the low water bridge) is about an 8 mile drive that takes 13 minutes. There are no (zero!) traffic lights, but this option is available only when the Shenandoah river's water level isn't high. It is a one-lane bridge, as the picture just below shows. This bridge is frequently covered with water after heavy rain or when snow is melting.

The rhythm of my day is very much defined by having to drive Samuel in to school, driving home, then later in the day returning to school, driving home again. (Why I drive him in is a story for another time) All of this is done with my other 3 children in tow. While I currently can easily attach small grocery shopping trips to the trips I take into town to get Samuel from school, shopping for other household necessities is difficult, considering I have to spend my day teaching and caring for my other children. I do most of my clothing shopping on-line, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have a retail clothing location within 5 miles of my house.

While I am willing to sacrifice a little of the quietness of our area for an increase in shopping convenience, I don’t yet quite know what to think of the increase in traffic this will bring. I wonder what I’ll think a year from now, when most of the new shops should be open and the new lights in operation.

Two of the new traffic lights, to be put into operation soon.

A whole new golf course, adult community, and hotel/conference center is also being built along the same 3 1/2 mile stretch of road where the Target and Walmart stores are going to be. It has been a little sad watching the rolling hills that this area used to be get stripped, turned into a golf course, and now watching homes and townhomes getting built on it. The hotel just started going up in the last couple weeks where the large crane is pictured.