A plan by the Department of Transportation to widen and straighten Plott Creek Road on the outskirts of Waynesville has angered residents of the area as well as some town leaders who say the plan is ill-conceived and was developed without public input.

The project is supposed to ease congestion at Hazelwood Elementary School, where parents picking up their children in the afternoon back up traffic while waiting to turn into the school. The plan would add a third turn lane to the road, widen the lanes and straighten a section of the road. DOT says the measures will make the road safer, but residents of the area and some town leaders disagree.

“When roads are wider and straighter, people just tend to go faster,” said Chuck Dixon, a resident of the area. “Highways are more than just moving traffic from one place to another. Highways go through places where people live, go to school, go to work, go to church. There is more to a highway than cars going quickly. It also involves bicycles and sidewalks.”

Waynesville Town Planner Paul Benson said the town is asking DOT to offset the bigger road with traffic calming measures — including sidewalks on both sides of the street, raised crosswalks, a tree border and landscaped islands.

“The main purpose of this project seems to be to move traffic. It could result in increased speeds, which could actually make the road by the school less safe,” Benson said. “People will drive whatever speed they feel comfortable.”

Dixon equated the third lane to creating a parking lot in the middle of the street for parents waiting to pick up their children.

Waynesville Alderman Gavin Brown said, in hindsight, the scenario is a case study in “not-so- smart growth.”

The old Hazelwood Elementary School was in a traditional neighborhood where children could easily walk to school. The 60-year-old school, in dire need of renovation, was abandoned, and a new school was built on the outskirts of town. Brown said he does not fault the school board, for at the time the concept of “smart growth” was not yet a buzz word.

The result, however, is chasing schools with infrastructure, which should attempt to mimic a traditional neighborhood setting, said Brown.

The $716,000 project estimate — which DOT officials say is likely low — does not include sidewalks. The DOT project manager Ralph Cannady said a sidewalk will have to come out of a different pot of money and will be a separate project after the road is done. The money being used to widen the road comes from a special fund intended to tackle safety issues, which the DOT defines as wider lanes and shoulders rather than amenities like sidewalks and crosswalks.

If private developers were embarking on a project in Plott Creek, they would be required to consult with town planners for permits, meet the town’s smart growth land-use plan standards and go through a review before the town’s community appearance commission and the town planning board. Brown said DOT should be held to the same standards — which includes sidewalks on both sides of the street.

“I assume it was unintentional oversight, but being left out of the process is the worst thing that can happen,” Brown said.

Cannady said the DOT did not realize the project fell inside the town limits.

Rush to the finish line

Plott Creek residents received letters last month inviting them to an informational meeting to learn about the project. The letter described the project as “upgrading pavement widths and shoulders.” When Dixon and his neighbors walked into the meeting and inspected the large DOT maps, they found half their yards would be taken, leaving little buffer between their front doors and the road.

“We were quite surprised at the size of the project and appalled actually. Everyone there was upset,” Dixon said.

DOT recorded neighbors’ comments, but announced that right of way acquisition would begin in January, Dixon said.

The DOT hopes to put the project out to bid by May or June, said Cannady.

With that kind of time line, some wonder whether DOT is listening.

“It seems like they are just going through the motions and they weren’t going to change anything based on community input,” Dixon said.

Brown doubted that DOT officials could absorb public comment in that time frame.

“If they can digest and take this into consideration in that amount of time, at this point in the juncture ... you’re asking ‘why wasn’t everybody at the table in the first place?’” Brown said.

The town has typically been able to stay abreast of proposed road projects by consulting the DOT”s master list that is published annually. It forecasts projects up to a decade away. As projects are completed, others move up the queue. But this project fell outside that process.

Cannady said the DOT received a special pot of money for a program called North Carolina Moving Ahead! that is intended to improve “safety and mobility and congestion” on targeted roads. The 10 western counties in Division 14 received $23 million. The caveat was that money had to be spent in two fiscal years.

“We hope to have most of the money obligated if not spent by the end of the fiscal calendar year,” Cannady said, thus the June 2005 schedule for letting the contract.

In devising projects for the Moving Ahead! money, towns were solicited for projects ideas. Waynesville sent back a wish list of nine projects, most of which called for safety improvements through traffic calming measures such as sidewalks, defined curbs and gutters, crosswalks and pedestrian islands. Only one of the items on the town’s wish list actually called for traditional road widening — Plott Creek Road, citing increased traffic due to the school.

“Although a turn lane (into the school entrance) was added, a serious need continues for road widening. As much as anything, we would campaign for children walking to school safely by constructing sidewalks,” the April 2003 letter stated.

Mayor Henry Foy said that in one sense, the DOT did what the town asked for. But the devil is in the details.

“The idea of the land-use plan is the walkable community aspect. This is really an opportunity to incorporate some of that,” Foy said. “I think those improvements would be forthcoming. I think the DOT is going to work with us on this.”

Cannady said if the project is held up due to the disagreement with residents and the town and can’t be completed within the Moving Ahead! time frame, the money can be spent elsewhere. Other Moving Ahead! projects have exceeded their budgets and the money could be applied to those and will not revert back to Raleigh.