The NCDOT hosted yet another public input session for the I-26 connector project. Persons speaking, without exception, advocated less roadway. Most wanted more greenery. Amina Spengler said studies she conducted at Stanford University showed that more highways make people buy bigger vehicles and drive more. She added that the improvements were part of a “huge plan†to transport nuclear waste through the area. David Brown echoed Spengler’s “Build it and they will come†philosophy. If government had a strange urge to pave, Brown recommended they create bike paths.
Two owners of commercial land up for condemnation told how they had plans for New Urbanist infill development sporting mixed-use, multi-tenant housing in walking distance to jobs and services.
Most spoke of the need to separate local traffic from interstate traffic. Even Julie Mayfield, Executive Director of the Western North Carolina Alliance, who had only been in town three months, liked the locally-generated plan, Alternative 4b, which still lacked an environmental impact analysis for comparison with the other proposals. Two people spoke to the need for the city to have signature gateways.
