Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance
A community alliance finding smart solutions for traffic and transportations issues.

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Our county's incorporated towns of Sylva, Dillsboro, and Webster all support Smart Roads, Not New Roads!
In 2003, each of these town's board of commissioners passed official resolutions opposing the
North Carolina Department of Transportiation's proposed Sylva-Dillsboro Southern Loop Bypass Highway.

www.smartroads.org

In 2001, the North Carolina Department of Transportation published Feasability Study FS-0114C  stating the purpose of the proposed new highway is to relieve traffic congestion on Jackson County's busy N.C. 107. The already partially funded Highway Project R-4745 is defined as:

"SYLVA-DILLSBORO SOUTHERN LOOP.
US 23-441 SOUTH OF DILLSBORO TO US 23-74 EAST OF SYLVA.
CONSTRUCT MULTI-LANE FREEWAY ON NEW LOCATION."

Since 2002 Smart Roads has been instrumental in:

• Getting a resolution signed by all four of Jackson County's incorporated towns, requesting that the NCDOT remove the Southern Loop from its long range plans.
• Developing strategies for improving exisitng roads.
• Conducting community meetings with national experts on transportation issues.
• Involving Jackson County residents in a community-based decision making process.
• Helping in the creation of the Transportation Task Force.
• Encouraging Jackson County Transit to offer daily bus routes and expand public transportation.

Despite these efforts, the NCDOT website shows it is actively planning the Southern Loop bypass and securing funds for right of way aquisition. Citizen involvement is critical!

Alternatives to Road Building

Transportation Alternatives are less costly for taxpayers and less damaging to our community and the environement. We need a plan for cars and people.

Smart Roads advocates for the preservation of open space and the prevention of sprawl. We promote these alternatives:

• Expand and connect existing roads to accommodate present and future traffic.
• Implement access management concepts and other traffic calming solutions for NC 107.
• Encourage walkable communities, making it easy for people to get where they need to go without driving.
• Build and expand bike lanes and support the Jackson County Greenway plan.
• Develop public transportation and utilize pre-exisiting railroad lines.
• Advocate for NCDOT to use earmarked funds for transportation alternatives.
• Preserve the Tuckaseegee River Corridor for public use.
  

With Smart Roads, we can accomplish what a majority of residents and local officials in Jackson County want to do: preserve open space and prevent sprawl from taking over our farms, woodland, wetlands, and mountaintops.

Why not make current roads work better, rather than shifting the problem to our precious countryside? Smart solutions could include utilizing proven access management techniques and connecting a network of existing local roads in a traditional neighborhood design.  Building more and wider roads through rural lands uses our tax dollars to subsidize sprawl. It also causes congestion as more cars and trucks come rushing to use the latest development. A new highway will greatly increase commercial growth and development, especially where the bypass would meet US 23/74, NC 107, and US 441. Along with more cars will come more traffic, more gas stations, more fast food, more big box stores and more asphalt parking lots. How much more do we really need? Traffic to and from those new developments will increase traffic on NC 107, not relieve it, defeating the very reason NCDOT claims the road would be built.

We can't build our way out of traffic congestion, in fact we already know that building more roads leads to more cars, more trucks and more pollution. The solution is to improve the roads we already have and make it convenient for people to get where they want to go and without necessarily having to drive to get there.