News

Stop the Parkway group 'very disappointed' in city position

By Bill Moss, Published: May 23, 2018

The group that rallied successfully to force the Henderson County Board of Commissioners to abandon the Balfour Parkway plans is critical of a decision by the Hendersonville City Council to endorse further study to find an acceptable route of the northern bypass.

During a special meeting of the council on Tuesday, Councilman Steve Caraker, the city's representative on the French Broad River MPO, said he wanted to express support for the planning process to "run its course" before asking the NCDOT to drop the project. The City Council agreed.

Stop the Balfour Parkway, which submitted 2,000 signatures from property owners opposed to the plan, urged parkway opponents to support the resolution adopted by the Board of Commissioners, not the City Council's request to keep the project alive.

Here is the statement from the organization:

"In the resolution, the County Commissioners have asked NCDOT to halt all activity on the parkway. In the recent County Commission meeting, the commissioners also requested that NCDOT look at traffic issues and come up with realistic solutions. The commissioners took this step after hearing from many residents, including updated traffic analysis from NCDOT data that did not support the stated objectives of the Balfour Parkway project. This move by the commissioners is supported by the Stop the Balfour Parkway organization and the over 2,000 people that signed the petition to halt all work on the destructive expressway.

"We are very disappointed with the actions of the City Council given that this road will be impacting county residents directly and not the city of Hendersonville. We are encouraging all FBRMPO members to align with the county commissioners as well as the residents of Henderson County in repealing the Balfour Parkway. The Stop the Balfour organization is committed to continuing our work to Stop the Balfour Parkway."