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Transportation study group holds first meeting since 2004
By Derek Hodges
With Jackson County’s Land Development Plan in place, members of the county’s Transportation Task Force are ready to move forward to improve local roads.
The group, which is charged with developing a transportation plan for the county, met March 14, for its first meeting since April 20, 2004. The nearly two-year gap was mandated by N.C. Department of Transportation regulations. Those rules require counties planning for transportation needs to have adopted a land development plan in the last five years. Jackson County had never had such a document.
County leaders put the task force’s work on hold and in June 2005 began drafting a land plan. That document has since been adopted by the county and towns.
Developing the 30-year transportation plan will probably take between 18 months and two years, said Beverly Harris, planning group supervisor for the NCDOT’s Planning Branch.
“This is a difficult process, and it takes a lot of data,” she said.
While some group members were concerned about that length of time, Harris pointed out that a faster process would have no benefits and could prove detrimental. Since state leaders approved a seven-year transportation plan last year, the earliest local projects could receive funding is 2013, she said. Rushing the process could lead to bad results and would shut out public input.
“We really do want the community involved,” Harris said. “We’re a public body, so everything we do the public is invited to. The goal that I have is that whatever we produce is very defendable. We’ll be going back to the community all the time so that this plan is supported.”
The group’s main focus will be on easing congestion on N.C. 107, though it will also address transportation concerns throughout the county, Harris said.
“We need to talk about 107 because that’s the reason your commissioners set up this committee,” she said.
While there is no easy solution, there are some things local residents can expect, Harris said.
“We’re probably not going to recommend any additional pavement on 107; we’re not going to request widening,” she said. “We may get answers on 107 faster than we get done with the countywide short-term strategy.”
Some, particularly business owners who fear the loss of parking space, have expressed concerns about the potential for widening N.C. 107. The road was constructed as a four-lane highway but has since been modified to five lanes to allow a turn lane for businesses. That change has led to narrow lanes that often run over stormwater grates.
Harris mentioned several possible solutions for N.C. 107, including medians and reducing the number of driveways opening onto the road. Those options could cause concern among business owners, who might worry about a lose of business from less-accessible parking areas, she said.
“We would have to reach out to the community and educate business owners about what we’re doing,” she said.
Another possible solution is providing more mass transit options, Harris said.
“I think we need to talk about some options involving transit,” she said. “Those are things your commissioners are going to expect us to at least discuss.”
“I think you need to look at the success Appalachian (State University) has had with its bus system and look at why it failed so miserably in Jackson County to have a bus that served the (Western Carolina University) campus and the community,” Smart Roads Coalition representative Roger Turner said.
Harris pointed out that WCU is currently working to develop its own comprehensive transportation plan that may help address Turner’s concerns and alleviate some student traffic.
While much of the group’s work will focus on N.C. 107, the plan they develop will have a wider scope, Harris said.
“This will be a transportation plan for the entire county,” she said. “We’ll focus on Sylva and 107 because rural areas don’t require the same things as urbanized areas.”
One major issue county leaders face is the lack of controls on county lands, Harris said. While Harris did not advocate zoning, she said a lack of controls has led to “dynamic growth” and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
In working on solving that and other problems facing the county, group members agreed to Jackson County Planner Linda Cable’s suggestion to meet quarterly. That schedule was not without opposition, as Turner expressed concerns the meetings should be held more regularly.
“I think things are moving entirely too quickly for us to have that luxury (of meeting so seldom),” Turner said. “I believe they’ve been studying this since 1994. I think from the standpoint of public buy-in of this process we need to have some immediate results.”
Turner suggested several projects that he would like to see completed, including revamping the intersection of N.C. 107 and Business 23 in Sylva. Harris countered, saying those projects may come about as part of the process, but would require the same studies and data gathering.
Cable also defended the meeting plan, saying smaller committees will handle business between sessions.
Cable presented a plan to establish four sub-committees to specifically address student traffic from WCU and Southwestern Community College, business traffic on N.C. 107 in Sylva, development of a comprehensive traffic plan, and public relations. Task force members volunteered for the committees which, according to Cable, will meet more regularly than the full group.
“It’s easier to get small groups together and work on it that way than to get a big group together,” Harris said.
The committees should meet at least monthly and will bring their work back to the larger group for approval, Cable said. In addition to task force members, the committees may be filled with community members, she said.
“I see us reaching out to lots of different people for these groups,” Cable said.
No firm date was set for the group’s next meeting, though Cable said it will come sometime in June. The time that meetings will be held also drew debate from Turner.
Cable suggested the group alternate between afternoon and evening meetings to allow greater participation from task force and community members. While the group will not entertain public comment at each meeting, written comments will always be welcome, Cable said.
Turner disagreed with the alternating meeting time, arguing all meetings should be held in the evening to make it easier for community members to attend.
“There’s some folks who can’t do the night meetings,” Cable said.
The group agreed to the alternating meeting times, and will meet at 6 p.m. for their next session.
Despite some tense moments during the reorganizational meeting, Harris said task force members should feel hopeful.
“We’re well into the process now,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of steps and it’s going to seem cumbersome at first, but if you can stick with me, I think we’ll see some positive things come out of this.”
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