When plans for widening Howell Mill Road in Waynesville were revealed last week, an ongoing struggle between Waynesville leaders and the N.C. Department of Transportation reared its head.

The two entities have very different feelings about about road aesthetics, bike lanes, and traffic calming measures versus the traditional “add-a-middle-turn lane” ideology, with the DOT being a fan of the latter and the town the former.

During a joint meeting last week, DOT leaders told town officials that if the town wanted bike lanes, sidewalks or a multi-use path, the town would have to pay for the additional right of way and most of the construction costs to have these non-vehicular measures incorporated into the road.

“DOT is not going to build a sidewalk unless there is justification for it,” said Jack Ward with KO Associates, the firm contracted to design the road.

Town planner Paul Benson told DOT that the reason no one is walking or biking along the narrow shoulder-less road now is because it is unsafe and unpleasant to do so, a factor that would change if pedestrian accommodations were incorporated.

Howell Mill Road, a narrow, curvy 1.5-mile road with a semi-rural character, passes behind the Waynesville Recreation Center and serves as a shortcut between Russ Avenue and the Old Asheville Highway. The area — home to a sprawling junkyard along Richland Creek — is the missing link in the town’s greenway that runs from town limits all the way to Lake Junaluska along Richland Creek.

With the Howell Mill road widening on tap, greenway planners lit on the idea of incorporating a multi-use path into the road project to serve as the missing greenway link. The town wants an 8- to 10-foot path buffered from the road traffic by a wide planting strip.

Tim Plowman with the Waynesville Recreation Center asked if they could have a bike lane in addition to the multi-use path. DOT representatives questioned why bikers couldn’t use the multi-use path. Plowman said the more professional road bikers go too fast to be co-mingled with pedestrians, joggers, moms pushing strollers and kids on bikes that will be using the multi-use path.

“That would lead to a lot more right of way, which the town would have to buy,” said Joel Setzer, division engineer with DOT. “That’s funds the town has to come up with. You just need to be aware of those costs.”

The town also learned it would not only have to pay for bike lane right of way and share in the additional construction costs, but also the full cost of additional right of way for the multi-use path and part of that construction cost as well.

Construction costs for the road are pegged around $7 million, not including engineering and right-of-way acquisition, which will be expensive as the widening is taking out several houses and significant portions of front yards.

Not in my front yard

Residents along Howell Mill turned out at the meeting to question the need for any of the so-called road “improvements.”

Charles Leatherwood estimated the new road design would save motorists “about one minute. Maybe one minute. They can’t justify it. No way.”

The Old Asheville Highway, which underwent a $10 million road widening with middle turn lanes and several new stoplights, is actually slower now than its two-lane predecessor.

“Sometimes progress is really regression,” said Thomas Moody, who will lose two rental houses in the Howell Mill widening and significant portions of the yard off two others lived in by family members. “All they need to do is add about a foot and a half of asphalt on either side of the road.”

The outpouring of Howell Mill residents threw both the DOT and town officials off guard.

“This was not intended to be a public meeting. It was intended to be a meeting between the DOT and the town of Waynesville,” Setzer told the audience.

The meeting qualified as a public meeting, however, which is defined as any time the majority of an elected body gathers in one place with the intention of discussing public issues. In this case, all five town board members were present. The town failed to notify the three newspapers in Waynesville of the meeting until 24 hours beforehand. Given the short notice, the papers were unable to put an announcement in the paper informing the public of the meeting.

But a couple of Howell Mill residents learned of the meeting anyway and launched a phone tree, drumming up nearly two dozen residents to turn out at the meeting.

“It would have been nice if (the town) had told us about this meeting. After all, I’ve lived there for 45 years,” said Ella Mae Balentine, who is at risk of losing her home to the road. “There’s never been a traffic jam to my knowledge on Howell Mill Road.”

Another component of the project questioned by neighbors is a large bridge over the railroad tracks, the most costly part of the project. DOT officials said the railroad crossing is dangerous and traffic needs to be routed overhead.

Residents said they have been living with the railroad crossing for generations without any trouble, and there is far less rail traffic now than there used to be.

Neighbors also questioned DOT’s traffic counts. DOT’s last traffic counts from 2003 showed roughly 5,000 vehicles using the road daily and projected a traffic count of 9,000 by 2025. But neighbors alleged traffic counts taken in 2003 are misleading. That was the peak of construction on the Old Asheville Highway, which funneled considerable traffic onto Howell Mill as motorists looked to avoid slowdowns.