For Mathis Ave redevelopment, a Manassas bypass isn’t a dirty word

If the Mathis Avenue corridor is going to change, so may traffic patterns need to change on Route 28.

Manassas officials are have dusted off the more than a decade old Mathis Avenue Sector Plan and are starting to make streetscape improvements in the neighborhood that mirror similar efforts in the city’s downtown.

Route 28, lined with fast-food joints, shopping centers, and car lots, runs parallel to Mathis and is called the most congested road in Northern Virginia. It’s a commuter route that takes workers through the city to jobs near Dulles Airport.

There’s a $220 million plan to widen it from four to six lanes between Manassas and Fairfax County That’s an enormous price tag for a local project.

It’s expensive because there are so many roadside businesses, and the state will need to buy portions of their properties to widen the road in its existing alignment.

A proposed bypass route — an extension of Godwin Drive near Novant/UVA Prince William Medical Center to Compton Road on the Fairfax County line — is another alternative. “I support the bypass,” Manassas City Councilwoman Theresa Coates-Ellis told Potomac Local.

The bypass would take commuters coming from western Prince William, Stafford, and Fauquier counties around the city. While some cities cringe at the thought of a bypass routing potential visitors around its downtown, Manassas doesn’t.

“When you think about a bypass, it’s often a bad word for a town or a city because they’re relying on through-traffic from a commercial standpoint. But Manassas is a destination…it’s not a city that’s going to die if those commuters…go around the city,” said Manassas Economic Development Director Patrick Small.

In fact, small says most city residents complain about traffic congestion like everyone else in the region. However, when they’re back home and off the major highways, they give the city high marks for how easy it is to get around, he adds.

The new Mathis corridor is ripe for mid-rise development, the city says. There’s enough space in the corridor to build large enough buildings, with enough space for parking, and possibly space for new parking garages.

The average building height here will be three to six stories tall. The city says redevelopment of this area could take at least 10 years but could happen faster if a federal grant it applied for to make streetscape improvements comes through sooner than later.

Featured photo: A 2005 image shows what a redeveloped Mathis Avenue could look like.