No one issue is emerging as a defining factor in this year’s Sylva town election. Instead, candidates are talking about several concerns that fall under the umbrella of growth and development.

One hot-button issue that will face the next town board in Sylva is the Southern Loop, a proposed divided highway that would bypass the five-lane commercial strip of N.C. 107 by cutting through the countryside of Jackson County.

Where the town stands on the controversial highway and how much it will exert itself in the political process surrounding the road will be decided by this next board.

N.C. 107 is the main artery between downtown Sylva and Western Carolina University and is clogged with fast-food restaurants, a Wal-Mart, grocery stores, retail strip malls and soon a new Lowe’s Home Improvement store. Most candidates share the view that N.C. 107 can be redesigned rather than building a new highway.

“Right now I would be against it. I think there would be other ways to deal with it without taking so many homes,” Alderwoman Anne Cabe said.

Cabe said she preferred the concept of “access management” for redesigning roads overwhelmed by commercial development. The key principle is eliminating the myriad entrances to individual parking lots and instead creating a couple of key intersections that lead to access roads running between businesses.

Like Cabe, Mayor Brenda Oliver said she prefers a “creative solution” to redesign traffic flow rather than building a new highway. Oliver said she was interested in replacing left-turn lanes with planted medians, which alleviate traffic jams that result when people try to make left turns into and out of businesses during busy times of day.

“Right now, I am for additional studies to see what is best,” Oliver said.

Candidate Stacy Knotts said she has not studied the proposal for the new highway in-depth, but her initial reaction is anti-Southern Loop.

“I would rather explore redesigning 107 before building a new highway from scratch,” Knotts said, citing costs of building a new highway and the negative consequences of taking people’s homes.

Other candidates were more vague regarding the Southern Loop.

“From my personal standpoint, we need to get with DOT and work something out on 107. 107 is not going to carry all that traffic,” Alderman Danny Allen said.

Candidate Harold Hensley said he didn’t have a position.

“I don’t know. I know something needs to be done, but I think it needs to be ironed out by people who know more about it than me,” Hensley said.

Reaching out

Another growth and development related issue is annexation, the term for extending the town limits to encompass areas that now fall outside the town. An annexation proposal would have brought two neighborhoods off N.C. 107 into the town limits but it was recently defeated by a 3 to 2 vote of the town board.

Another issue facing Sylva in the near future is the creation of an extra-territorial jurisdiction, or ETJ. An ETJ creates a planning ring around the town that allows a town to manage growth on its borders. Unlike most towns in the region, Sylva does not have an ETJ.

Cabe initially voted against the plan to annex two neighborhoods off N.C. 107, but said she has learned more about annexation since then and now feels like it will be necessary.

“I feel like annexation is important if Sylva is going to grow. We are going to have to annex some,” Cabe said.

Allen also voted against the annexation. He was reluctant to share his view on extending the town limits or creating a planning area around the town.

“If I say I am for something or not for something, there is always going to be opposition. I don’t want to say one way or another,” Allen said.

He said is he undecided. He also said that his personal opinion doesn’t matter anyway because he will act based on input from residents.

Knotts said a planning area would be a good idea for the town.

“It makes sense if the growth right around us is going to be impacting Sylva it would be nice to coordinate what is happening right along the borders,” Knotts said.

Knotts said annexation is a little more tricky.

“For annexation, the issue we would have to consider is do the people want to be annexed, would it benefit the current town members to annex that area, how could we get services to that new area and are those people using the resources we have in Sylva?” Knotts said.

Hensley said he is not familiar with proposals to extend the town limits.

“That’s fine with me if they figure it is something to help the town,” Hensley said. “The main thing I stand on is is it going to benefit the citizens of the town.”

Allen said he would like Sylva to play a greater role as a leader in the county.

“I just think we need to go in a new direction because of the growth that is upon us,” Allen said. “Sylva is a hub and Sylva right now is not prepared to handle the situation.”

Allen cited projected growth at Western Carolina University as one example.

“I think with the mayor and the board need to come together to prepare for that growth. I haven’t seen it yet,” Allen said.

Oliver said the town has been as proactive as it can given a limited planning staff.

“It is a monster and we can only do a small piece at a time,” Oliver said of growth.

One thing that would have certainly helped the town’s planning efforts is the extending the town limits to encompass new growth on the outskirts of town, but Allen voted against it, said Oliver, who supported the two annexation plans.