Cullowhee Community Planning Council held a public meeting on Oct. 22, 2019, in the Ramsey Center at WCU to showcase the finalized drafts of the Cullowhee Small Area Plan. Photo by Sara Stanley.
The Cullowhee Community Planning Council has created a small area plan for the community that focuses on housing for students and permanent residents.
The council held a public meeting on Oct. 22 in the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University to showcase the finalized drafts of the Cullowhee Small Area Plan.
Planning Manager for Stewart Civil Engineering, Jake Petrosky, led the presentation and discussed the vision that the plan will create for housing in Cullowhee.
“We want to preserve some of the established neighborhoods near campus by discouraging intense rezoning that may change the character of those areas,” Petrosky said.
Petrosky explained that this plan is a collaborative vision of residents and the planning council to guide future development in the community. Although there are no exact predictions for housing numbers, the plan explains how revising lot regulations can allow for compact clusters of houses to be built. These smaller, multi-family options would appeal to households with yearly incomes of $15,000 or less.
“There are also some transition areas that are not quite single-family or rural that still have a proximity to campus, so we can focus on using those areas for multi-family style duplexes or apartments,” Petrosky said.
These visions for sustainable, affordable housing also include plans for parking, recreation opportunities, and alternative transportation options. Included in the plan are several options for bike lanes that would run parallel to highway 107 and a vision for a restructuring of the river district along the Tuckaseegee River to create and promote local businesses.
Caroline LaFrienier, Planner II for the Jackson County Planning Office, spoke with several of the community members after the presentation and she said that the overall response was “incredibly positive” and that there was lots of feedback about the impact of the plan.
“It would be nice if we had the resources for the kids to stay here and for the faculty to be true members of the community where they work,” said Roy Osborne, a member of the community.
The plan will be finalized by the end of the year through a public hearing and will then be implemented in new developments.
