News

Commissioners to meet with NCDOT on Balfour Parkway

By Bill Moss, Published: March 21, 2018

Henderson County commissioners will hold a work session next month to hear details about the proposed Balfour Parkway from the engineers who are designing it.

“On April 18, the board will hold a work session with DOT engineers and the consultants that are doing the Balfour Parkway study,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said.

Board Chairman Michael Edney announced the work session during Wednesday's regular meeting of the Board of Commissioners.

After the regular 9 a.m. meeting, the commissioners will convene the work session, “where we’ll go through all those issues in great detail,” Wyatt said. Among the topics would likely be an explanation of the “the strengths and weaknesses of the routes. Is it going to be more cost effective to go through a developed area or an undeveloped area?”

Although Edney might allow public comment at the start of the work session, Wyatt said he didn’t think members of the public would be directly involved in the discussion with the engineers.

“A free-for-all would not be productive,” Wyatt said. “It would have to be a structured information meeting. This is another step in the process.”

Homeowners in neighborhoods that would potentially be affected by the $160 million bypass have organized Stop the Balfour Parkway in hopes of halting the project or moving it farther west to the Fletcher and Mills River area. Bill Burchill, a resident of Carriage Park, has produced a report questioning the DOT's traffic projections and need for the project. He and others hope to get the opportunity to speak when the Balfour Parkway engineers are in the room.

"I would be shocked if they didn't allow the public to enter into at least some moment of the agenda," he said.