A road-widening project and a new 40-home development will likely bring significant changes to Sylva’s Cope Creek area.

The two projects are not related, but together will shift growth toward what has been a quiet residential and farm land community.

The one-mile road-widening project is part of Gov. Mike Easley’s North Carolina Moving Ahead initiative, a two-year program designed to make upgrades to existing roadways. Similar projects were spread across the region in a two-part implementation plan, said Ralph Cannady, the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Division 14 project manager.

Cope Creek Road measures only 16 feet wide with no shoulders. Widening would take the road up to 20 feet across with a graded shoulder.

Efforts are being made to minimize the impact of the widening, said Cannady. Many homes along Cope Creek are located just a few feet away from the road.

“I don’t think there’ll be any lost,” Cannady said of the homes.

Consultants will come up with two proposed routes and hold a public work session to gather citizen input. Only the first mile of the road — measuring from the intersection with N.C. 107 — has been tapped for expansion. Further expansion is largely dependent on whether the North Carolina Moving Ahead program is continued, Cannady said.

Cannady said the first work session would be held in several months. A date has not been set. Construction will begin in the summer of 2005.

Cannady said DOT officials were not aware of plans for a new residential development on Cope Creek when they chose to widen the road.

The development, planned by Charlotte-based developer Carlton Brown, has been discussed at Sylva’s town meetings. The developer has requested that a water line be extended to the development in exchange for voluntary annexation.

“The Town of Sylva has really welcomed us with open arms for the project,” Brown said.

The annexation is not yet a done deal; however, Brown is moving ahead, planning for community wells.

“Our plan is to go forward with everything being on city sewer and putting everything on shared wells and our engineers have drawn it up so it will be an easy transition when the water does come,” Brown said.

Approximately 40 single-family homes are planned for a 15-acre parcel of land near Toy Cove. The land straddles Cope Creek and is currently occupied by mobile homes. The mobile home residents have been forced to relocate, but the property purchase should not have come as a surprise, Brown said.

“This piece of property has been for sale forever, and these people have always been on a month-to-month lease,” he said.

In an effort to ease the transition, Brown has offered to pay moving costs for residents, an offer which some have accepted.

The new homes will be stick-built and based on four different plans ranging from three bedrooms and two bathrooms, to three bedrooms with two and half baths. Prices range from $139,000 for 1,262 square feet to $165,000 for 1,750 square feet.

“We’re not going to make a lot of money,” Brown said. “If I built one of these, I’d be lucky if I made any, but we’re counting on volume.”

Brown also is building a log cabin development off U.S. 441 in Dillsboro, where homes on .75-acre lots will sell for about $150,000.

Brown said he started building vacation and spec homes locally about seven years ago. Through his work, he found that increasing property values were pushing locals out of the housing market.

“I noticed how everyone is building for out-of-towners,” he said.

“Knowing what I could build a house for and seeing what people were living in, and nobody doing anything about it, I said, ‘You know I’m going to step up to the plate here,’” he said.

Model homes should be open by Aug. 15.