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Comments from individuals who expressed a preference to Improve Chapman and other ways, but to not build the JWP extension: Thursday meeting 1. I am convinced that the environmental impacts of building any type of road through the (karst-ridden) undeveloped and (relative) wilderness areas in the project path (e.g., the hollow between View Park Drive and Sevierville Pike is totally undesirable. In future decades we will place tremendous value on undeveloped area, especially woodland habitats, which also make a major benefit to Knoxville ’s challenged air quality. Why should South Knoxville communities and wilderness areas be sacrificed for a small convenience to commuters who have chosen to live outside the city limits? This would be urban sprawl at its worst! All past traffic projections for Chapman Highway have been far greater then the actuality. Please let Knoxville have a district/area which is an alternative to the development in west Knoxville. 2. Too many people would be displaced at a tremendous expense and I don’t feel that it is necessary if other road improvements are made. 3. The expense, the disruption to neighborhoods, destruction of last urban forests, the fact the JWP is scarcely used, for what – to save 3-4 minutes of travel? Can not support such destruction. Chapman Highway , with improvements, can easily support traffic, with traffic projections, on Chapman Highway . I’ve been travelling this road for 20+ years – from Sevierville for 11 of those years, and now from South Knox for 10+ years – the traffic has not changed significantly. 4. Prefers improvements to Chapman or building the JWP and cross Chapman Highway at steak house and tie into J. Sevier on the west side of John Sevier. 5. Concern about urban sprawl, destroying the environment and wild life, ruining the ‘look’ of south Knoxville as a quiet side of town. Its uniqueness would be destroyed – please consider upgrade to Chapman Highway and unneeded by the people in SK. 6. This could take money for much needed improvements to Chapman. The priority should be to have turn lanes in areas that currently do not. Reducing the speed limit south of John Sevier should also be looked at. There are two things on Chapman that could be done right away for little or not money – lower the speed limit 5 or 10 mph, esp. the southern part. Greater enforcement of the speed limit, what ever it is. 7. I think this road would be an environmental disaster. This is a complicated and delicate terrain that could only be damaged by road building. Given the previous ridiculously poor designs put forth (and in some cases built) I think the interchanges at John Sevier Highway and/or Chapman would likely be big problems, do it right, please! If you really mean to improve Chapman Highway , this is great but we’ve had too many dribs and drabs in the past. – make the commitment and finish the job. I applaud everyone who has devoted time to this study. I recognize that this is a very complicated subject and it is difficult to educate the public (especially when people want to focus on what affects them personally and ignore the big picture or the future. By the way, I’m one of those people who live in Seymour that chose to live farther out and I do care about South Knoxville . 8. More concerns than I have room for in this form. In my opinion, it its not needed, it destroys neighboring wildlife, and is not wanted by anyone that I have talked to. Traffic volume could be controlled by vastly improving Chapman Highway and slightly improving existing routes – this is the way to go. 9. I feel that the devastation done to So. Knox neighborhoods, not to mention the tremendous expense of the extension and the unknown factors of geology, etc, far out weight on the negative side the relatively inconsiderable benefits of building a new road rather than improving Chapman Highway and other major roads in this section of the city. I am strongly in favor of improving Chapman and other roadway, and not building the JWP extension. 10. John Sevier Highway is the logical place is the road is completed, but improving Chapman Highway and other roadways is probably the best choice, despite the short term pains. Improving a marginal road is better than spending enormous sums to build a parallel road. (One negative + one positive doesn’t equal a positive). Why not turn the negative road into a positive one? 11. Favor improving Chapman and other roads, not building the extension
Monday meeting 12. Improve Chapman Highway ASAP and forget building new road – keep south Knoxville unique and quite. 13. Sidewalks on Chapman Highway , median along Chapman for right/left turns, 6 lanes, not 7 in business areas of Chapman. Control Speeding. Wreck differences do not reflect traffic flowing at assigned speeds (not to mention cell phone usage) versus high speeds and uncontrolled traffic. If the extension is built suggest a more logical route would be to take the road to John Sevier near the river and cross over connecting up with highway 66. Wasn’t the idea to go to Sevierville originally? 14. Cannot see the economic benefits. Area is home to a large number of home owners of over 20 years residence. Growth in itself does not always had to the benefit of the majority. Improve Chapman Highway for the next 10 years. Not enough patterns are developed to prove the need for a new road. 15. This is a huge waste of money that will destroy businesses, homes and environment. We feel safety is a problem on Chapman. Traffic is not. Turn lanes and median would improve safety and traffic and not destroy existing business. 16. James White is an embarrassment to logical thinking. Why make it worse. Fix Chapman Highway . 17. Issues include impact on neighborhoods, and residents, traffic on smaller roads and danger to animals, children and pets, question how Gov. John Sevier Highway can handle additional traffic, property values in affected areas. I would like to see improvements on Sevierville Pike, particularly on sharp curves and the long stretch where cars speed in front of my house. Controlling speeders is important. Limiting increase in traffic flow is also important – the road is quaint, but dangerous. I appreciate the process and the opportunity for input. 18. I didn’t see a traffic count on the Parkway and the South Knoxville bridge – will it be used? There’s not much traffic on it now. Terrain and geology are issues, and the fact that the route has changed several times. 19. Do not build the Parkway extension, Do not improve Sevierville Pike . Traffic is already too heavy. I should not have to set at the end of my driveway just to get out onto Sevierville Pike. That is already happening. If you improve it we’ll never get out to the road. It is totally unnecessary to destroy our neighborhoods for this parkway. You have Chapman Highway and John Sevier. We love this community as it is. You need to draw traffic to Chapman Highway for business. There does not need to be additional traffic in our neighborhoods. By the way – allowing Walmart in our neighborhood was a major mistake in my opinion. You should have had it going in at Seymour . 20. It takes my house. I think we should try and fix some of the roads we already have, that you can barely drive on and stay in the lanes. Save some money so we don’t have to have our land taxes go up or some new tax that will just bankrupt us. 21. It takes most of my land and doesn’t leave enough room for my horses. Improve Chapman Highway and other roadways, but do not build the parkway extension. To drive on the roads around here requires an alignment once a month. Save a little money and don’t raise our land taxes, and no more new taxes. 22. The road goes through my 4 year old home. I think that you should fix the broken down roads that we already have. 23. Improve Chapman Highway and build new businesses to use empty buildings. Cost would be a lot less to repair Chapman Highway than to buy property and build a road that travels beside a 4 lane existing highway. 24. I am concerned that building a new road will be opening up south Knox County to some of the same planning mistakes that were made in west Knox County . We need a definitive plan of what we want south Knox County to be in the next 30 years and beyond. Improving Chapman Highway and other roadways seems like the logical solution. Lets work with what we have, not open up south Knox County with more roads encouraging sprawl and poor development. 25. I do not believe the Parkway extension should be built. It could adversely affect water quality. South Knoxville is a beautiful, rural buffer area between cities. We do not need more super highways. We need alternative transportation. Our air quality is terrible – more roads will add to this. Do not take our land! What about the animals there? Chapman Highway should be made safer by adding lights and turning lanes. Other roads are just fine the way they are, except for a few pot holes. I love the railroad tunnels, where I have to stop for my neighbors. We need more sidewalks! Make it pedestrian friendly! If you are going to extend the road, please make it a landscaped boulevard with the least environmental impact possible. Build sidewalks and bike lanes. Please preserve our beautiful, rural communities by keeping roads and highway to a minimum. Build more greenways and bike lanes instead. America has already been paved over. We are choking because of poor air quality. We can make Chapman safer without compromising our land and environment. Do not contribute to sprawl! 26. Creating this new road only serves to divert resources from Chapman Highway and all the economic base which the businesses along this route brings. This road could very easily lead s. Knox into becoming a dead area of Knoxville while Seymour and more southernly area grow. Urban Sprawl! Take what you have instead of creating more. South Knox is a jewel – we should improve the existing artery – Chapman Highway – and keep our rural charm. I hate going into west Knoxville because of the congestion(i.e. more roads create more traffic) and the urban blight (ugly roads and concrete) Yuck! South Knoxville stands on the precipice of being ‘new’ and ‘rediscovered’. Lets use the transportation of the area say something about our unique area. South Knoxville corridor roads desperately need to be improved – but the rest of Knoxville is so bland and like everywhere else overly ‘roaded’ – make a statement. Smart urban planning instead of one design flaw followed by another. So it once and do it right.
Tuesday meeting 27. I would like to go on the record as strongly opposing the extension of James White Parkway in any form and fashion and as being a strong supporter of seeing long need improvements to Chapman Highway be completed, including turn lanes and, where needed, additional travel lanes.As for the extension of the parkway, I oppose for the following reasons.
There is value in leaving areas of community intact and undeveloped for future generations. Remember, a road can’t be ‘unbuilt.’ It will drastically and permanently alter a unique and fragile landscape which has value above and beyond economic development and traffic concerns. South Knoxville is a unique community with a unique set of values which we pride. I ask that you respect these values and focus your efforts on making Chapman Highway a safe, convenient and roadway for both South Knoxvillians and thru traffic and table plan to extend James White Parkway . 28. More cost effective to improve Chapman Highway . The existing section to Moody Ave. is not pedestrian friendly. 29. Extending JWP would ruin the environment and air quality. Just have mass transit. Improving Chapman sounds like the environmentally friendly way. 30. I am against the parkway extension, it is the wrong kind of development. The more highways are built, the cars will crowd them. Improving Chapman is my choice. Progress is necessary but we need progress that respects potential of south Knoxville to be livable, recyclable, environmentally friendly, progressive, sustainable, prosperous and even a bit bohemian. Suggested improvements to Chapman sound interesting. More study, less action, more comprehensive plan needed for development for South Knoxville - road is only a part of the planning needed. In south Knoxville we want a different kind of development than that which is occurring in west Knoxville . Improvements to south Knoxville sound interesting – center turn lanes, travel lanes and redevelopment corridor. Meeting to oriented to conventional development. 31. With existing roads in place and needing improvement, it seems an insane waste of funds to build the parkway extension. It would also be a shame to destroy the affected woodlands, and the parkway can only have a negative impact on businesses on Chapman Highway , It’s an obsolete idea. Improving Chapman seems by far the best alternative, providing a revitalized Chapman Highway , with commercial areas that will invite drivers to stop and shop, rather than zooming by on an expressway. This would also seem to provide better local traffic flow, benefiting south Knoxvillians. 32. Chapman Highway needs to be improved regardless of anything else that’s done. Once improved, no other roads needs to be built! The problem will be fixed. This is the only solution that should be considered, The parkway extension be built on caves and strip south Knoxville of its beautiful woods, native birds and overall character of the great neighborhoods, Seiverville Pike also need some relatively minor repairs. The evaluation below is referring to tonight’s meeting only [high scores were given to our meeting process]. Previous TDOT meetings appeared to be done because of mandates requiring them. They poorly faked the idea that public input was welcome. In fact it seemed obvious that public opinion was meaningless. 33. My concerns are multiple 1) traffic – I commute daily from South Knox County into downtown. Traffic almost also flows smoothly on Chapman Highway . The times I pull out my hair )or want to) are those days I have to travel west from downtown – now there’s a traffic problem. I don’t want my tax money spend on a less than necessary new road. I am not interested in speeding – by a few minutes – the travel from those in Seymour who are headed north. 2) I am much more interested in a mass transit option and I don’t see those concerns reflected here. 3) Environmentally right now S. Knoxville is great. I see deer, hear owls and wood thrushes etc. There are nice wooded areas and I don’t want to see the breeding area for wood thrushes – just to name one – decreased for a less than necessary road. We desperately need to switch our focus from the private car emphasis and if we are going to spend huge amounts as yet unnamed amounts of money, lets get creative and do something other than just more asphalt. 4) Economically – businesses along Chapman Highway need more business - not less – Speeding traffic away from/around Chapman Highway businesses is not helpful! We already have a number of empty storefronts – why encourage more sprawl business developments out to Seymour ? 5) Chapman Highway does need to be better – bike/trails/sidewalks are crucial. These improvements are needed whatever else happens. I cringe when I pass a pedestrian where there isn’t really room for one. I have always lived in places where it was much easier to bike and I biked more! I don’t consider it safe enough to bike along Chapman. 34. If population studies find that there is a need to get the Seymour area – Sevierville to link up with the James White Parkway have the concerns of residents be a priority. Try to incorporate lands that don’t infringe on residential properties and the reduction of property values. South Knox needs a safe and charming (close to Henley bridge) tree-lined island. Chapman Highway needs to be the first improvements. WE don not want a widening of Seveirville Pike. Speed is a problem already, straightening out curves would only enhance the speed problem. The curves slow drivers down –the straight aways make it dangerous for our children and animals. Improve Chapman and leave Sevierville Pike alone. If a parkway is needed do not have exit, entrance ramps on Sevierville Pike. Chapman and John Sevier ramps will be sufficient. We want south Knoxville to be as charming and unique as west Knox is wealthy and modern. Chapman Hwy is unique too – its proximity to the university and downtown and yet is proceeds south to the Great Smoky mountains . Lets take the this opportunity to do it well with residents safety and South Knox aesthetics the concern. 35. The area is geologically unsound to ‘carry’ a road in the long term. By all means, improve Chapman Highway . Develop the road to nowhere into a transit center, offering park and ride and KAT options to south county residents. (Mr and Mrs) 36. I oppose this alternative – the majority of people complaining about Chapman Highway and the majority of traffic growth on Chapman are coming from Seymour and its exponential growth. John Sevier Highway is already overburdened during rush hour at the major intersections. John Sevier will be unduly impacted by having another major road joined to it. You have not analyzed this impact so how this be presented as a viable alternative. I support improving Chapman Highway and other roadways. Origin/Destination studies need to be done. Growth controls need to be put into place to protect South Knox County from becoming a west Knoxville development nightmare. It growth is coming primarily from Sevier/Blount counties or if currently most traffic is coming from those areas, then those counties need to bear the impact. There is no data analysis adequate to choose the build alternative. 37. This is a waste of taxpayer money. 1)Lack of TDOT coordination JWP intersection with business loop and I-40 is a convoluted and dangerous mess, lack of entrance ramps 2) watershed protection – parkway extension crosses watershed of TN threatened species – TN blind cave salamander, the state amphibian special needs required of road to protect this habitat, one of only a dozen in TN 3) pretty view of parkway is not representative of crossing steep terrain. Comments on improve Chapman and other raodways 1) Expanding Chapman highway as proposed 7 lanes is a waste of time as it will just clutter up and choke; find a way to eliminate left hand turns (cross traffic) and increase volume and speed. ) Improve John Sevier 4 lane it 3) I’d rather see an extra lane than a treed center lane – put a barrier in middle. 4) sinkhole protection on Sevierville pike at Marie Myer Park will be a bottle neck 38. Is this a supplement or a replacement of Chapman Hwy ? I would like to live in South Knoxville again, within city limits within TN River – John Sevier-Chapman triangle but don’t want to live next to an interstate or Chapman Highway. I avoid slow roads like Chapman Highway and a Kingston Pike, prefer parkway concept. Rosy pictures and concepts avoid real ugliness of most of area – disclaimer – can’t define accurately. 39. Absolutely – Environmental, Cost efficiency, political deals made by developers/land speculators, driving or diverting traffic and trucks into residential neighborhoods, Redbud Drive interchange – outrageous idea – terminus at Ye Olde Steakhouse –useless. Improve Chapman alternative is long overdue – I hear all these alternatives, but perhaps the most feasible and cost efficient alternative would be reversible lanes during rush hours. I lean toward improving Chapman Highway . Most people in South Knoxville us it most regularly. 40. I think it would be great to apply all the money to Chapman Highway and make it a first class 7 lanes road – 2 lanes each way, 1 center turn lanes for left turners and a lane on each side for turning right. It would be great access to the Smokies and good for people coming into the city, and be much safer. I think there is too much concern about the extension and don’t believe it would be adequate. It seems to me it would be better to not spend that money to build the extension which would not be that great a road anyway but instead put it on Chapman Hwy and make it a first class road. 41. Building the parkway is not a good idea. I can’t believe it won’t have big negative environmental impact and disruptive to the area. I have heard long-time S. Knox residents say they want the parkway. That this area has been overlooked for many improvements – while this may be true, I don’t think it is a reason to build the parkway. But I do think old timers sentiments need to be addressed. Improving Chapman Highway needs to be the first priority, its already there. Moving forward with improving Chapman Highway should not be hijacked by the decision about parkway extension. Improve John Sevier now, don’t wait. (why not have reversible turning lanes during rush hour and Chapman Highway ) Long time residents feel impatient about this parkway. I’ve only lived here three years so I’m not impatient. But I think it would be easy to play into this impatience and resentment that S. Knoxville gets overlooked. Politicians could say “see we’re not ignoring you anymore, you get his parkway” I think this is a bad idea, this is no gift. Red Bud interchange would be devastating. Mail/fax, and other meetings.- 42. I vote against the completion of JWP. 43. My main concerns involve damage to the environment – endangered animals, harming our beautiful urban forest, once you pave over a wide swath of ground, you’ll never get it back. Improving Chapman and other roadways is the best plan – the one I prefer. Spend far less money, disturb or divide no neighborhoods, and allow good access to businesses along Chapman. Driving a safer Chapman Highway will get cars from Sevier County to the interstate in good time. Do not build the extension – it would be a big mistake. 44. No compelling evidence was presented that justified constructing the parkway. No detailed traffic study was presented that demonstrated a lessoning of the congestion on Chapman Highway . No cost/benefit analysis was presented that justified the JWP vs. improving Chapman. Improving Chapman and other roadways would be the preferred alternative given the information presented. I feel we should improve the existing roadway ( Chapman Hwy ) before we spend money on a new roadway. The South Knox vision can be achieved without destroying such a wide swath through the community. 45. I live in south Knoxville on Scottish Pike. I am against the extension of James White Parkway . It is not needed and it is too expensive. The Extension will destroy habitat and neighborhoods. It will not help South Knoxville economically as much as proponents seem to wish. It is too expensive. If all other programs were fully funded, such as education, and if our existing city streets were not in need of repair and resurfacing the James White extension would still be a horrible waste of money. Please do everything you can to prevent the extension from being built. Money saved from the proposed extension should be spent on John Sevier Hwy and Sevier Av. 46. Improve Chapman Highway and other roadways - 1) needs to be done either way and would add even more expense. 2) Other way would be excessively costly 3) other way would require many more years to complete. 4) other way much more disruptive and create many more hardships and lawsuits 5) other way would totally destroy the character of south Knoxville 6)too many studies would have to be handled other way. 47. First of all, I want to mention that you guys did an excellent job with the presentation. I would give high ratings to most components of the meeting. The materials were especially good - they summarized a lot of information in an easy-to-understand format, so kudos. There were a few things I was disappointed in. First of all, I expected more members of the task force to be present. I know there were three meetings, and no one could make all three, but I do hope the task force is really interested in what the public has to say. I'm assuming all task force members will be given all the input and will read it? And please have somebody get back to me when there is an answer for the question I asked - that is, when ya'll have worked out the process for how you will incorporate public input into your recommendation making process. There was some information I was hoping to see that was missing. It seems like the Task Force is making decisions based entirely - or almost entirely - on traffic issues, models, etc. Obviously this is a big piece of the picture. But there are other issues - environmental impacts, impacts on Chapman Highway businesses, impacts on neighborhoods, projections on changed land use - that I didn't see any data for. Where is the data used/collected/etc. from the subcommittees on economic impacts and neighborhood impacts? How did this data factor into the decision-making? Now, for what it's worth - my opinion. Whenever I think about this entire issue I always come back to what I think is the real question - that is, what problem are we trying to solve? The answer is obvious - to me anyway - we need to reduce congestion and improve safety on Chapman Highway . The next logical question then becomes - what's the best way to do that? My preference would be to concentrate on improving Chapman Highway and forget about extending the JWP. There are many reasons for this preference. One is simply that as a society we have limited resources - there isn't an unlimited pool of tax $$ out there. I realize it's not as easy as saying "shift the $$$ from this pot to that one," but given those limited resources, I want to see them go toward improving Chapman Highway for the people of south Knoxville rather than making it easier for people from Seymour to bypass south Knoxville. Which brings me to another point - by decreasing commute times to Sevier County , an extension of the JWP would be a sprawl enabler. I could write paragraphs preaching on the evils of sprawl, but I assume everybody on the Task Force is familiar with them by now. But I have trouble understanding how, in a time when our Mayor talks about the need to "grow" the City through redevelopment and infill, the 4 City Council members on the task force would support something that makes it easier to channel growth and development outside the City. I am also very concerned with the environmental impacts of extending the JWP. I hope the Task Force has discussed them thoroughly - they are certainly well documented. And they are substantial. I might well have other concerns related to economic and community impacts, but as I said above, I haven't seen any data on those. If you all have it, please share. If you don't have it, shouldn't you? However, if the JWP extension is to be built, I do think the Task Force has come up with recommendations for improving it. I would support the parkway design and the removal of both the Redbud and Island Home Pike interchanges. And I applaud the Task Force for rejecting the lunacy of the current plan to reconnect the JWP to Chapman Highway at Ye Old Steak House. If the extension is built, it should definitely extend to Governor John Sevier Highway , although I agree with the person at last night's meeting who raised some concerns about how well that interchange would function given the current and expected future traffic on John Sevier. Thanks for the opportunity to comment. I look forward to hearing about the next steps, and more of that "continuous public involvement." 48. Do not build – Destruction of forests and natural areas, possible contamination of groundwater and destruction of natural drainage systems. We need to focus on alternative transportation – use less fuel, cause less pollution. The traffic projections made in the 70’s have not developed. There may not be a need for the extension. I think improvements can be made on Chapman for a fraction of the cost of completely JWP. 49. Do not build - Too much destruction of property and wild areas – old Sevierville Pike is an historic road to be preserved and not interrupted by parkway. The Chapman corridor is already there – build to handle more traffic and keep more traffic off side roads. Widen Chapman to handle projected traffic – Run parkway into Moody. 50. Thank you for devoting so much of your time to studying this issue. I hope we can come to a fruitful outcome through the process that has been invoked over these past months. I made a choice four years ago to buy a house in deep S. Knox County and to move there from the inner city neighborhood of “Fourth and Gill”. I made this choice knowing that there would be certain lifestyle changes that would have to be made to live 9 miles from downtown. For instance, on Wednesday evenings a group of us go to Haw Ridge for a group mountain bike ride. Instead of just running out the door in the morning for work, I get up a little early and load all of my gear in the truck and take it to work with me. This saves a trip to and from the house. This is obviously less convenient than when I lived a mile from downtown, however it is a choice that I made and have not regretted. This proposed road would benefit my travels greatly, seeing as how I live approximately where John Sevier Highway intersects Chapman Highway I could just jump on the new road. However for many reasons, I am against building a new road parallel to Chapman Highway . Here are a few of my reasons:
Added 10-26-2004 51. Introduction 52. First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to voice my opinion. I hope that you take the responses that you receive into serious consideration. I, as a concerned and affected citizen, am opposed to the James White Parkway extension. Following is a list of just a few of my major concerns.
I have read John Nolt’s environmental report on the subject and done some research of my own. The area sustains a great number of species, some of which are quite rare, and a cave/karst system that is very delicate. The effects of such a road project would be devastating to the habitats of countless creatures and the delicate watershed systems in the area. This area should be seen as an asset to the community, not as something to be bulldozed to benefit the Sevierville tourism industry. We need to get our priorities straight.
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