OPINION: NC 107 connector “just a bad idea”
CULLOWHEE–In a letter published in this week’s Smoky Mountain News, Jeannette Evans, owner of Cullowhee’s Mad Batter and principal in the area transportation advocacy group Smart Roads, has a look at where the “southern loop” issue stands.
A clip:
A new bypass has enormous potential to drastically change our community’s traffic patterns, economy and landscape. Conversely, all the other projects located in the CTP are designed to improve and/or expand existing roads, thus improving current traffic patterns and preserving our landscape. DOT’s own modeling showed that the 107 Connector would not solve the congestion on N.C. 107 or at the intersection of Asheville Highway. It is primarily these congestion areas that are cited as reasons for building the 107 Connector.
Tags: Cullowhee, Economy, Opinion, Roads, smart roads, Smoky Mountain News, southern loop, Transportation
Related posts:
I’m a bit ashamed to say so, because I can see the high road route (that’s a pun, in which the opposite is true, since the proposed route is higher literally but not figuratively ) but would rather enjoy using a connector. I’m opposed to a Cane Creek route, simply because friends would be adversely affected. But the map seems to show a new route over Fairview. OK! Let’s hope if they build it it’ll be an enjoyable drive — and I’ll be pleased to miss all the businesses in Sylva. Being held hostage to commerce isn’t my cup of tea.
The connector is probably a bad idea and yet inevitable. The Smart Roads folks started with the best of intentions but quite frankly it appears that the leadership of the group enjoys the process more than actually accomplishing something. I was involved with the group at its inception and watched it devolve into activism for activism’s sake.
Even though Smart Roads was entitled to one seat on the committee they were often represented by two individuals, neither of whom seemed to do their homework and both of whom seemed more interested in obstructing the process than arriving at realistic and practical solutions.
The traffic on 107 is driven by the growth at WCU. Normally one way of controlling growth in an area is by controlling the development of infrastructure. Roads, water and sewer determine the level and type of growth an area gets. Place limits on any of those and growth may slow. Unfortunately that model doesn’t work in this case because WCU can and has outgrown local infrastructure yet even if it is the community’s will and desire to moderate growth WCU is, unlike any regular business or industry, able to impose its will on the surrounding community.
I’m not arguing that WCU shouldn’t grow but the vision that Chancellor Bardo and this Board of Regents has expressed is not one that benefits or sustains our local communities. Instead, the current pattern replaces and superimposes.
Dr. Bardo says what he needs to for local audiences but read the speeches he gives outside the local area. He favors, in fact he’s made his career, on pushing the concept of regionalism. He has said very clearly that he sees Cullowhee as some sort of grand regional crossroads.
WCU can and is driving the kind of growth that will make the connector inevitable. The Smart Roads folks can offer all manner of cutesy alternatives but the fact is that none of them even remotely begin to address the current patterns of growth present in this area of Jackson County. Until and unless our local grass roots groups and our local politicians are willing and able to address the impact of WCU then many of these efforts are simply window dressing for the inevitable.
The Smart Roads folks have wasted a solid grass roots effort stoking their own egos and parading their own chorus but because they have stubbornly refused to practically and realistically address the fundamental issues driving our infrastructure they have wasted what otherwise could have been a good, solid genuine community effort to have a meaningful say in the community’s future.