The Smart Roads Alliance Position Statement on the Jackson County Comprehensive Transportation Plan, 12/14/09

The Smart Roads Alliance has serious concerns over the inclusion of a bypass, called the 107 Connector, in the Jackson County Transportation Task Force's Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP). (A bypass is a road or highway that avoids a built-up area and allows traffic flow without interference from local traffic.)  As members of the Task Force and the decision making process which created the CTP, the Smart Roads Alliance is not confident that the Task Force took the time to discuss or evaluate the potential environmental, economic, community and/or cultural impacts a bypass would have on our community.  It is this inadequate evaluation of consequences that causes the Alliance to believe that it is not in our community's best interest to support a bypass.    A new bypass has enormous potential to drastically change our community's traffic patterns, economy and landscape.  A bypass would divert 10,000-12,000 vehicles/day from our commercial districts, use 135 million dollars in taxpayer funds, dislocate approximately 50 residences and consume a ¼ mile swath of private property, 5 miles long, in Jackson County .  Conversely, all the other transportation projects in the CTP will fix and/or expand existing roads, thus maintaining current traffic patterns and preserving the landscape.  The Smart Roads Alliance agrees with the inclusion of all these other projects in the CTP.   Moreover, DOT's own modeling shows that the 107 Connector will not solve the congestion on Hwy 107 or at the intersection of Asheville Hwy. Yet it is often this congestion which is cited as the reason for building the 107 Connector.  However, as DOT's Pam Cook often stated, traffic on Hwy 107 is driven by land use.  Land use means just that, how the land is used.  In our situation, the land along Hwy 107 is filled with many popular destinations and it's the driving to and from these locations that causes congestion.   To address this congestion, the CTP includes many solutions aimed directly at improving Hwy 107, East Main Street and the intersection of Asheville Hwy.   Only when these solutions are implemented and traffic begins to flow more efficiently can we better evaluate the need for a $135 million bypass. Let's be sure that wrong reasoning is not being used to justify a decision as enormous as building a bypass.   One of the wrong reasons for building a bypass is the assumption that it will be needed to accommodate WCU's projected growth.  Given the history of enrollment at WCU there is considerable uncertainty about how this will actually unfold.  And, at any rate, distance learning will be a major element of their growth. (Distance learning students are students enrolled in online and off campus courses and do not come to Cullowhee.)   Smart Roads would encourage our community and its leadership to capitalize on the increased enrollment of on-campus students by demanding infrastructure improvements that encourage the WCU community to become active and supporting members of our economy.  A 107 Connector could possibly discourage the WCU community, (or anyone else traveling from the southern portion of our county) from participating in our local economy.  When modeled, a Connector accommodated the greatest number of vehicles/day if built south of Hwy116.  At this location, anyone traveling to or from our southern communities could enter and/or exit our area without driving through most of our main commercial districts.  There has been no evaluation performed by the Task Force or any other government body for that matter, of the potential economic impacts when 10,000+ vehicles/day are diverted from our commercial corridors.      Another potential impact of the bypass not evaluated by the Task Force is the interchange it would require at the intersection of Hwy 107.  In a private conversation with NCDOT's Pam Cook, she stated that, 'there will be a separate grade interchange that includes clover leafs and/or ramps'.  This sounds like an overpass.   DOT is reluctant to discuss the final design of this interchange because the project is still in the 'feasibility stage' and not the 'design stage'.  However, the Smart Roads Alliance believes that somewhere DOT has built an interchange designed to accommodate 10,000+ vehicles/day and, with very little effort, we could have the important information needed to understand the necessary footprint and/or height requirement of the overpass.  The design of an interchange is a vital consequence of the 107 Connector and its impact should be evaluated and understood before including it in the CTP.    Lastly, the Task Force was not allowed to explore transit and rail options as solutions for traffic problems in our community.  This is because DOT's traffic model cannot model for transit and rail options in rural areas like ours.  This seems a bit out of touch with today's concerns, to say nothing of concerns of 2035, the year for the model.   These are just a few of the reasons why the Smart Roads Alliance believes that the 107 Connector should be omitted from the CTP.  Other reasons include the dislocation of residents and communities, the destruction of farmland and open spaces, environmental degradation, negative impacts on air quality and human health, and a continued reliance on foreign oil especially as dwindling supplies and increased foreign competition causes prices to become increasingly straining on household budgets.   A decision will be made soon, with NCDOT relying heavily on the vote of the incorporated towns and the county commissioners. Please contact all town and county leaders and let them know how you feel about the proposed 107 Connector.   To learn more you can visit www.regiona.org and click on Economic Development, then Transportation Planning to view the Jackson CTP in its entirety.  Or please visit www.ncdot.gov and select Jackson County .  The 107 Connector is project number is R-4745. Select more info and then click on the image for a detailed draft map of the 107 Connector.