The following comments on the Draft Programmatic Agreement (PA) for the Tri-County Parkway (TCP) are submitted on behalf of the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Parks Conservation Association. Our organizations recognize the irreplaceable value of Manassas National Battlefield Park (Battlefield).
We share the important goal of removing commuter traffic from the two highways that currently cross the Battlefield. However, we are committed to ensuring that the chosen solution does not increase the overall impacts to the Battlefield from traffic or simply shift the negative impacts from one
area of the Battlefield to another—especially when far less damaging alternatives have not been adequately considered. Similarly, we believe it is critical that the Programmatic Agreement for any new project proposed near the Battlefield incorporate the level of protection and mitigation warranted for a resource of such significance to the history of the Commonwealth and the entire country. We offer the following comments with those objectives in mind.