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Transportation group defines target area
By Lynn Hotaling
The crowds that flocked to several summertime forums and fall commissioners' meetings stayed at home last Tuesday (April 20), leaving a transportation study group to meet in an almost-empty courtroom.
Only three spectators and two journalists witnessed the first meeting of Jackson County's Transportation Study Task Force, and one of those, N.C. Department of Transportation engineer Jamie Wilson, soon joined the panel.
The low turnout was surprising, given the controversial nature of the DOT's June 2003 proposal for a Southern Loop Bypass that would have connected U.S. 74 near Blantons Branch with U.S. 44l in the vicinity of Cagle Branch.
The task force, a result of lobbying by the grassroots Smart Roads Alliance for another plan, was formed by a Nov. 20 resolution approved by Jackson County commissioners after several weeks of discussion during meetings so crowded they had to be moved from the board room to a much-larger courtroom.
During last week's session, members of the task force listened to DOT planner Beverly Williams explain how a transportation study works. She told the group that the end result would be recommendations and that it would not be a quick process.
Williams indicated that DOT personnel had drawn maps with a proposed study area and that task force members could expand or narrow that area. Williams also told the group that much data - population, trip numbers, job and school locations and more - would have to be gathered before the study could proceed.
Smart Roads member Avram Friedman, the only onlooker who was neither with the press or with DOT, expressed his view that Williams was "dictating" the process.
Williams replied that she was attempting to steer the group so that things would be done in a manner that "meets the approval of the Federal Highway Commission."
The group then began small-group discussions of the area to be studied, based on several large maps DOT provided.
According to Matt Roark, the Southwestern Commission planner charged with coordinating meetings and information for the group, the study area will include the Business 23/N.C. 107 corridor from Dillsboro to Cullowhee as well as U.S. 441 as far south as Pumpkintown Road, the Webster area including N.C. 116 and Old Settlement Road, U.S. 74 as far as Blantons Branch, old N.C. 107 including Cane Creek and Wayehutta, N.C. 107 south from Cullowhee to its intersection with N.C. 281, and areas between Cullowhee and Webster.
The task force will next meet Monday, July 12, at 6 p.m. at the Justice Center, Roark said.
The three-month delay is needed to allow time for data collection, he said. Also in the works is a map that will show the precise location of the study area, Roark said.
The task force will not be dominated by DOT, according to Roark. Williams was functioning as a "guest speaker" during the April 20 meeting to give members an idea of the process that must be followed to satisfy the FHA.
"This group is not driven by DOT," Roark said. "DOT has already done a study.
"This is another look at not just 107 but the whole area. It will be a locally driven process, and it will be democratic. DOT involvement is to be sure we stay within federal guidelines so if we do agree on a plan, it will have a chance of being funded."
Roark said he doesn't expect any recommendation from the task force until about 18 months from now.
The county's transportation study task force is made up of a representative of the DOT's state planning unit; Roark; the Jackson County Transportation Board (Howard Allman, Commissioner Roberta Crawford, Dean Coward, Ron Stephens and Wade Wilson); the Jackson County Smart Growth Task Force (Gary Buchanan, Rob Shelton, Richard Wilson, Mickey Henson, Jay Spiro and Jim Dukes); representatives from the towns of Webster (Jay Coward), Dillsboro (Jim Hartbarger), Forest Hills (Jim Davis), and Sylva (Eldridge Painter); representatives from Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College; and a representative from the Smart Roads Alliance.
State DOT board member Conrad Burrell of Sylva was present for the meeting.
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