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OBSERVATIONS
July 16, 2020 |
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The recently adopted Smithfield Town Plan includes this illustration of how East Market Street could be widened, including a new railroad underpass and new sidewalks on both sides of the roadway.
 Wingate Lassiter |
College sidewalk issue raises need
for major East Market Street upgrade
It's good policy for the Town of Smithfield to require sidewalks with approval of permits for new commercial and institutional as well as residential projects these days. It's part of a nationwide movement to make our communities more "pedestrian friendly" as more folks --- younger folks especially --- want healthful alternatives to total dependence on the automobile to get where we want to go.
That policy came into play at last week's Town Council session when approval was sought for construction of the new engineering building at Johnston Community College. Planning Director Stephen Wensman recommended that a condition be attached to the permit to require the college to build a sidewalk connecting the new building with nearby East Market Street.
Trouble is, there's no sidewalk in place along the south side of Market Street there. And when one will be constructed is perhaps many years away.
That's because the widening of East Market from Bright Leaf Boulevard to I-95 isn't on the near-term list of N.C. Department of Transportation urban road projects.
It ought to be.
That stretch of Market Street (US 70 Business) is getting busier and busier as Smithfield's most important gateway, leading visitors into town from I-95. Along that stretch is not only the main entrance to the college but also the access streets to an ever-growing number of restaurants and hotels and retail businesses.
What's more, East Market in its present state as a roadway with single travel lanes in each direction is stuck with untapped potential as an economic driver of high-quality new development Downtown.
The Town Council last week approved the permit for the new college building that includes the sidewalk requirement recommended by the planning director. Only Councilman David Barbour voted no because of what he sees as an unnecessary extra expense for the project (which is being funded, by the way, with some of those school bonds approved by Johnston's voters year before last).
"Every dollar we take away from JCC for sidewalks is money that won't be spent on students," he insisted.
Perhaps the town should have made the new college sidewalk conditional --- to be added whenever NCDOT widens East Market with sidewalks as was done with the new Durwood Stephenson Parkway.
This short stretch in front of a recently constructed commercial building is the only piece of sidewalk on either side of East Market Street near Johnston Community College, and it's across the road from campus and doesn't connect to another.
Smithfield's Blooming: the crape myrtles' turn
Mid-summer brings out the colors produced by flowers of our crape myrtle trees, like these hardy specimens at South Smithfield Elementary School. The reds about town are likely some of our oldest, as the white varieties have become more prevalent in recent times.
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