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Buncombe County consultants present preliminary top 10 projects for countywide pedestrian plan; officials flag maintenance, jurisdiction questions
Summary
Consultants for Buncombe County presented a draft network and preliminary top‑10 sidewalk projects drawn from nearly 1,500 survey visitors and thousands of community comments, while committee members pressed for clarity on DOT coordination, maintenance responsibility and targeted outreach before finalizing cut sheets.
Consultants leading Buncombe County’s pedestrian plan presented preliminary top‑10 projects and a proposed countywide network at the steering committee’s second meeting, saying the draft reflects thousands of community inputs and a round‑one survey with nearly 1,500 visitors.
Rachel, a McAdams project consultant, told the committee the county lacks a countywide pedestrian plan and the administrative mechanism to build and maintain sidewalks in unincorporated areas, so the new plan will act both as a guide for where to build sidewalks and a policy tool to create the capacity to do that work. "People wanna walk, but they feel like they can't do that safely," Rachel said, summarizing recurring public comments about missing sidewalks, uncomfortable crossings and safety fears.
Why it matters: Buncombe County’s growth pockets lie outside existing municipal plans, and committee members said a county plan could help make projects eligible for federal funding and attract partners. The consultants said they layered community‑drawn lines with existing municipal and MPO plans to produce GIS…
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