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Envisioning an 'urban village'
For most of us, driving along N.C. 107 between Wal-Mart and Ingles requires concentrating so hard on the busy traffic that we hardly even look around.
That's why it was interesting a couple of weeks ago to listen to and learn from a dozen or so Clemson University fourth-year landscape architecture students who have taken the time to look past the congestion and toward a vision of the "urban village" that could be there.
Not only had these kids imagined the community that could exist, they had made detailed maps and drawings of the 380 dwellings - apartments, townhouses and duplexes - that could someday be located within walking distance of Wal-Mart, Ingles and Smoky Mountain High and Fairview Elementary schools.
"Imagine that. Kids could walk to school," said Jim Aust, planning director for the town of Sylva and a proponent of just the sort of community the students' envision.
Under the direction of Professor Mary Parker Dargan, the students mapped the entire county and then zoomed in on their chosen site, developing their plan for a mixed-use, close-to-town, high-density residential community as a class cooperative project.
Available at Sylva's City Hall are the fruits of their labors: Lots of maps and drawings that show the county's population centers, utility locations, soil types, water and recreation resources, elevations and more.
Students proposed some changes along the highway that could slow traffic and make the drive seem more relaxed. Their idea is to have trees on both sides of the street and in the middle. To achieve this goal, they would eliminate the center lane, add bike paths and slope the road toward an unpaved median that could absorb much of the stormwater runoff.
By taking out the continuous "suicide lane" that exists now, the other lanes could be widened, Aust said, and pulling green space to the middle of the highway creates a stormwater management tool.
Turning their attention to their planned community off 107 between Ingles and Wal-Mart, the students talked of the importance of connecting roads as a tool to relieve congestion on the highway.
In addition to plotting out the location of roads through the site, the group determined the route for utility easements within their planned community. During their presentation, they pointed out that while getting utilities to the site was among their greatest challenges, it is vital that urban planners try to concentrate development to maximize utility lines.
The students calculated that the community would use 86,000 gallons of water per day, requiring the installation of 3,200 feet of water main. They acknowledged that one area of particular concern for the area is the increased amount of pavement (hardscape) that will no longer be able to absorb water.
To minimize the impact of expanded impermeable surfaces, which would be about 45 percent of the property if the proposed development were completed, the students said they would include vegetative basins to catch storm water and provide some purification.
Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority Director Hugh Montgomery was on hand for the students' presentation, and, like Aust, was a vocal advocate of their efforts.
What the students' plan for a high-density urban community with open space and greenways achieves, he said, is a way to get the most benefit for the greatest number of people from existing and extended utility lines.
"We cannot solve these issues the old way," Montgomery said.
Aust echoed Montgomery in commending the students' hard work.
"They did an outstanding job and really opened our eyes," he said. "That site is a perfect opportunity for an urban village environment."
Aust and Montgomery are right. Sylva's not a sleepy little hamlet any more. With the growth projected at Western Carolina University and throughout the county, it's time for leaders to look more closely at the types of development they want to encourage.
Aust has no doubt as to the course Sylva should follow, and he's mapping out "zones of consideration" that town elected leaders can use to lay out plans to annex property into the city limits in preparation for exercising control over the type of development that will occur in the future. During a planning board meeting Tuesday night, Aust outlined a strategy for bringing the Cope Creek/Hall Heights/Woody Hampton area into the city limits; last week Sylva passed a resolution indicating their intent to annex the area that made up the Clemson students' study site.
"Sylva's got a master plan," he said. "We've got an opportunity to develop something here."
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