Most Clifton property owners sign Streetscape easements; council reviews VDOT duct-bank steps

The Clifton Town Council received an update Feb. 4 on the Main Street Streetscape project and next steps with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Streetscape Chair Susan Yantis said the project team has mailed required easement letters of intent and met with property owners; as of the meeting, the team had returned letters of intent from all owners and all but one owner is donating the easement. The initial phase of construction will be utility duct-bank work; the team is waiting for agreements from utility companies that will define scope, cost responsibilities and confirm that utilities have reviewed drawings. VDOT provided a sample agreement the town will circulate to the utilities; NOVEC and Cox indicated different approaches and Verizon may provide its own agreement.

Planning Commission Chair Kalinowski told council the Streetscape work will affect some existing use permits and highlighted two local impacts under discussion: the potential loss of one parking space at the Buckley store (the town could reassign a town parking space to offset the loss) and the potential loss of the shared loading zone for the Main Street Pub and Clifton Cafe9 (one solution under consideration is designating two spaces in front of the cafe9 as loading-only from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.). Chair Yantis said the utility-bank construction is expected to be the least invasive early phase and will serve as a test run for later work.

No formal council vote on easements or utility agreements took place at the Feb. 4 meeting; the town administrator said she would provide the VDOT sample agreement to the council for review so it can be used or adapted when presenting draft agreements to utility companies.