Article: Jackson Co. planning board prioritizes N.C. 107 improvements

Jackson Co. planning board prioritizes N.C. 107 improvements
by Giles Morris on January 14, 2011
The Tuckasegee Reader

http://www.tuckreader.com/planning-board-dot-priorities/

SYLVA –– The Jackson County Planning Board met Thursday to prioritize the county’s Department of Transportation projects. In the end, the board elected to pass six projects along to the Southwestern Regional Planning Commission (RPO) to be included in its regional priority list, which it generates every two years.

Topping the priority list were the proposed improvements to N.C. 107 from its intersection with U.S. 23 to its intersection at Lovedale Rd., which were the focal point of an NCDOT information session in November.

Five other projects made the priority list, including the proposed construction of a westbound on-ramp to U.S. 23/74 from the Asheville Highway and the proposed improvement of the Cashiers Crossroads at U.S. 64 and N.C. 107, a project that would include a new roundabout there.

The significance of the planning board’s priority list is not totally clear, since NCDOT’s Strategic Prioritization Office of Transportation (SPOT) will ultimately use a regional priority list developed by the Southwestern Planning Commission and a list from NC DOT’s Division 14 to develop its final list for the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).

To read all articles in our series about N.C. highway 107 click here.

Still, the rankings are significant insofar as they provide a venue for the county to show the NC DOT where its priorities lie.

For that reason, the Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance, a community organization that formed during the controversial early stages of the N.C. 107 Bypass planning process, attended Thursday’s meeting to let the board know how they viewed the priority list. In the NC DOT’s current conceptual plans, the Bypass would connect U.S. 23/74 and N.C. 107 with a new road somewhere between US 23 Business and Wayehutta Rd.

Jeannette Evans of Smart Roads, who also served on the Jackson County Comprehensive Transportation Plan task force, presented the organization’s positions on Thursday night.

Ultimately, her point was that the planning board should look long and hard at the all of the impacts of the proposed Bypass when it considered how to prioritize the project and to consider implementing alternative ways to alleviate traffic on N.C. 107.

“A lot of the projects we came up with in the task force process were specifically geared to alleviate congestion on N.C. 107 so prioritizing these projects is a real benefit,” Evans said.

Evans emphasized that the board needed to take into account the economic and environmental impacts of all the proposed projects, in addition to the way they would affect traffic patterns.

The planning board included the Bypass as the sixth ranked project on its list.

Ryan Sherby, who will compile the regional priority list for the Southwestern RPO to be submitted to the state in the summer, said the inclusion of the Bypass on the list and its low ranking sent a mixed message.

“It doesn’t show strong support for the project from the planning board, but I don’t know how [Division 14] will rank it in its Top 50,” Sherby said. “If the Bypass didn’t show up at all it would probably send a message that the planning board doesn’t support the project.”

Sherby added that the newly-elected Jackson County commissioners will have a say in the matter.

“I am still trying to get the new commissioners up to speed on a project that has a long history,” Sherby said. “I don’t have a sense on where the new commissioners see the project in their priorities.”

The planning board was split on the Bypass in its blind numerical ranking system, with three members listing it as their top priority and three others placing at the bottom.

While the Bypass plan has dominated the spotlight in Jackson County planning discussion during recent years, the widening and improvement of N.C. 107 is also a potentially controversial project, since it will impact over 85 local businesses on Sylva’s primary commercial artery. [Ed. note: When reading this statement, I think it is important to add that the referenced NCDOT plan does not include any road improvements projects proposed by the Jackson County Transportation Task Force and included in the CTP, that specifically target congestion on NC 107.]

Sherby said he planned to consult the Jackson County representative of the RPO Transportation Advisory Committee, yet to be named, about how to weight the recommendations on the planning board’s priority list, before he makes any determinations himself.

Sherby will then use pre-developed metrics to rank regional projects from the six counties in the Southwestern Planning Commission’s area. Counties that have already adopted comprehensive transportation plans, like Jackson County, have the potential to score the most points according to the metric.