Burrell, Setzer plug plan for Southern Loop

From: http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/11_07/11_28_07/fr_burrell_setzer.html

11/28/07

Burrell, Setzer plug plan for Southern Loop

By Jennifer Garlesky • Staff Writer

Members of Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance are sifting through paperwork at the North Carolina Department of Transportation Division 14 office in Webster to find out how the Southern Loop road project suddenly appeared on the state priority list.

The group filed a public records request earlier this month to see all the documentation involving the Southern Loop, a four-lane bypass that would run through Jackson County from U.S. 441 to U.S. 23-74 near Scotts Creek.

But members are going to have trouble finding the sheet of paper that many consider the smoking gun.

“There is nothing in here about how the project got on the TIP (Transportation Improvement Program) list,” Joel Setzer, division 14 chief engineer, said about the project’s documentation. “I know how it got on the TIP — at the request of me and Conrad Burrell, Division 14 representative on the state Board of Transportation.”

Both men requested that the project be included in the TIP so that funding could be allocated to begin planning stages, said Setzer.

“Time was passing without any plan to address growth in Jackson County,” he said.

Since the road’s proposal, Smart Road members have been questioning why the project was even proposed.

The Southern Loop has received much opposition by Jackson County residents and county commissioners have gone on the record saying a comprehensive transportation plan should be done that outlines alternatives to the road.

Even though the Smart Roads group now knows who requested the project be included on the TIP, it still wants more questions answered.

“The question still to be answered is why should it be built,” said DJ Gerkin, an attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Asheville that is aiding the Smart Roads group.

“Either DOT decided its own reason, or were they persuaded by someone,” he said.

“There are road projects all over Western North Carolina that are not being funded. If DOT puts this on their own agenda, that also tells us something,” said Gerkin.

[The Sylva Herald] Smart Roads Alliance asks DOT for all documents on Southern Loop

November 8, 2007
from The Sylva Herald

Smart Roads asks DOT for all documents on Southern Loop

By Justin Goble

The Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance is using the N.C. Public Records Law to request all documentation pertaining to the Southern Loop bypass from the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division 14.

The project is currently defined as a “multi-lane freeway” from U.S. 441 south of Dillsboro to U.S. 23/74 east of Sylva.

The request covers a four-year period, beginning with the creation of the Jackson County Transportation Task Force in November 2003 to this year, when the Southern Loop appeared on a regional transportation list for prioritized projects.

“We are the only community-based organization on the task force and feel it is appropriate for the public to be fully informed about the business of our state government,” said Jeanette Evans, a Smart Roads alternate representative to the Transportation Task Force. “In this case, how exactly did the Southern Loop become a ‘priority’ on a regional planning list within a statewide transportation planning process without public knowledge or input?”

The written request, prepared by the Southern Environmental Law Center, was mailed last week to Division 14 DOT representative Conrad Burrell; Division 14 Chief Engineer Joel Setzer; and NCDOT Planner Elizabeth Reddic, who is working with the Transportation Task Force.

When contacted Tuesday (Nov. 6), Setzer said he had received the letter and that all the information the group requested would be provided as soon as possible.

“Of course we’re going to give it to them,” he said. “I don’t have a schedule because they asked for such a comprehensive list. I don’t know how easily some of the information can be obtained.”

“It’s time for the Task Force and its members to be taken seriously by NCDOT,” said Susan Leveille, a representative on the Transportation Task Force. “Smart Roads believes the DOT is following its own agenda without consulting our community. Therefore we are advocating for the use on an independent traffic consultant as the county develops its own comprehensive transportation plan. The Task Force was meant to focus on fixing N.C. 107, not to function as a rubber stamp to advance the Southern Loop.”

The Southern Loop and Corridor K in Graham and Cherokee counties are the most costly transportation projects on the regional priority list. The current cost of the Southern Loop is estimated at more than $400 million, with Corridor K’s last segment (beginning in Andrews) estimated at $700 million in 2003.

The Smart Roads Alliance has been advocating for “alternatives” to the Southern Loop since 2003, when it held its first public program on “access management” for improving traffic flow on N.C. 107. Other presentations have included Dan Burden, a national expert on designing “walkable communities.”

The Smart Roads group plans a public meeting in January. For additional information, visit online at www.smartroads.org.

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