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By Lynn Hotaling
County school leaders listened Nov. 14 to ideas on how to improve
traffic flow through the campuses of Smoky Mountain High and Fairview
Elementary schools.
Architect John Cort of Asheville's Cort Architectural Group presented
members of the Jackson County Board of Education with a concept
of how traffic could work around SMHS - a concept he said is related
to traffic patterns at Fairview.
After a meeting between school officials, N.C. Department of Transportation
officials and architects, transportation leaders said they'd like
to see one-way traffic from Fairview through the county's Jones
property and exiting back onto N.C. 107 at Jones Street, Cort
said. To accomplish that, DOT officials have proposed three-laning
Fairview Road and paving and three-laning Jones Road, Cort said.
Cort and fellow architect Stephanie Holland presented four diagrams
for school officials' consideration. All but one requires the
acquisition of additional property adjacent to SMHS, Cort said.
Without acquiring additional property, the band practice field
would likely be lost to create additional parking, Cort said.
With additional property, not only could the band's practice area
be preserved, but there would also be room to construct a track
large enough to host track meets, he said.
When asked to endorse a concept and say whether Cort should plan
based on staying within the current campus limits or with the
inclusion of additional property, the consensus seemed to be that
it would be desirable to enlarge the campus.
"I think we'll have to get more property," said school
board member Ali Laird-Large. "I don't think we can take
the band practice field away."
A key feature of all the proposals is a perimeter road around
the SMHS campus, an idea that school board member Ken Henke said
would compromise security.
"We don't need more traffic on campus than necessary,"
Henke said. "If (vehicles) come on, they should go off the
same way. You open up the campus with everyone circling around."
Laird-Large wondered how parents would drop off one child at Fairview
and another at SMHS and asked if an additional drop-off point
could be placed behind SMHS. She estimated the number of parents
who drop off children at both schools at around 150.
Cort indicated it would probably be feasible to make a drop-off
point in front of the workforce development building to accommodate
that number of vehicles.
"It could be like a bus stop," he said.
DOT Division Engineer Ron Watson told school officials that DOT
was prepared to do its part to solve the schools' traffic woes.
Watson said Conrad Burrell of Sylva, the 14th District's representative
on the state DOT board, had indicated he would find the resources
to widen Fairview to three lanes and pave and widen Jones Street
to three lanes.
"The idea was to accommodate more traffic with a one-way
road and take traffic away from 107," Watson said.
"We could spread the traffic out by adding an intersection
at Jones Street."
"We're not trying to make any decisions on campus,"
Watson said. "We want to try and keep (traffic) going counterclockwise
with no left turns. It's a lot easier to merge to the right, but
I'm not telling you what to do.
DOT thinks the best solution is two lanes going in at Fairview
and two lanes coming out at Jones, Watson said.
"I just wanted to tell you we're prepared to do our part,"
Watson said.
Watson also told school officials that DOT would be willing to
work with them to develop a multiuse trail behind Burger King
to Southwestern Community College to provide a safer route from
the SMHS campus.
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