Va. transit board tightens rules for grant program

Since 1993, the state has put $270 million of its federal transportation money into 817 "enhancement grant" projects.

Only 389 of those popular community-based undertakings, which are supposed to be related to transportation, have been completed.

Dealing with multibillion-dollar, recession-driven budget cuts, the Commonwealth Transportation Board yesterday tightened the rules to qualify for the federally mandated enhancement program.

Localities typically use the money for sidewalks, streetscaping, landscaping, bike paths and train-station restoration.

But enhancement grants also have helped build a 121-foot wooden sailing schooner, design a military history museum and buy battlefield property in Virginia.

"Some of these projects are hard to justify as priorities in a time of diminishing resources," board member J. Douglas Koelemay said.

Starting in 2011, enhancement grants will have to promote "core transportation functions," the board said. Eligible activities will be:

• pedestrian and bicycle facilities;

• pedestrian and bicycle safety and education;

• landscaping and scenic beautification along transportation corridors;

• preservation of abandoned railway corridors for conversion to trails;

• rehabilitation of historic transportation buildings, structures and facilities; and

• acquisition of scenic or historic easements and sites, including historic battlefields.

Though the Virginia Department of Transportation's staff had recommended that the last two categories -- rehabilitations and acquisitions -- be dropped, the board added them back.

Administered by the state, the program is extraordinarily popular, particularly with small localities and community groups.

"We would never be able to fund a bike and pedestrian system on our own," said Leah Dempsey, a member of the Planning Commission in rural Isle of Wight County, at the Transportation Board meeting yesterday.

Activities no longer eligible in Virginia for the federal funding include removing outdoor advertising, archaeological research, wildlife connectivity, tourist centers and transportation museums.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .