The Town of Franklin and its residents will spend the next few months finalizing the details of its comprehensive land use plan.
Last summer, the town’s planning department held a public charrette for Franklin residents and regular visitors to hear their thoughts on how the town should handle future land development.
Since then, town planner Justin Setser and a crew of steering committee members have been going over public input to determine priorities for the comprehensive plan.
Setser says that results show that residents appreciate the small-town atmosphere of Franklin and its wealth of opportunities to spend time outdoors.
“Small-town character was mentioned over 115 times across 420 surveys,” Setser said. “Scenic beauty of the mountains, access to nature, friendly people and sense of community, safety, low traffic, festivals and events. These … These were some of the key points people had about what they liked the most about Franklin.”
However, there were also common themes in respondents’ concerns. Residents had a lot of ideas on how to improve the town’s business climate, including attracting more stores, finding ways to utilize upper floors of downtown buildings, making the town more walkable and improving access to internet and parking.
Most respondents wanted to see outdoor activities continue to expand through greenway improvements and beautification of public spaces. Housing was also a common priority, specifically small, low-maintenance single-family homes with easy access to downtown.
Setser said the steering committee took all of these ideas into account while choosing policies for a draft of the comprehensive plan. One of the most significant themes in the proposed policies was to embrace more flexible zoning ordinances to allow a mix of residential, commercial and recreational facilities in smaller areas. The plan describes this as “smart growth,” a design philosophy that focuses on fostering social, economic and environmental growth within small communities.
“These policies in districts with traditional neighborhoods would try to encourage growth closer to downtown,” Setser said. “Houses could be built closer to the road, small lots, low maintenance, parking in the rear or the side. You get a little more density and reduce that price range as well.”
Other prominent ideas across the plan’s policies include expanding pedestrian accessible areas downtown, beautifying downtown with murals and greenery, increasing financial support for entities that fuel Franklin’s outdoor activities, improving sidewalks and public transportation to encourage more passage through town and embracing local history by supporting a Nikwasi cultural arts district centered on the Nikwasi Mound.
The comprehensive plan is not necessarily complete. The town will hold another open house to discuss the plan with residents in March and the plan will be presented before the planning board and town council in March and April, respectively. Setser expects that the council will approve the plan at their May meeting, so its contents can still be changed by then. A timetable for implementation and cost estimates has not yet been determine.
They already have some basic implementation strategies in place in this draft, but they don’t know about time or cost until Town Council approves the final plan.
“We’ll take any additions or changes or concerns into consideration,” Setser said. “If anybody has any questions, they can contact me or there’s Jake Petrosky, the key project manager.”
The current draft of Franklin’s comprehensive land use plan is available for download at www.franklintownplan.com. The open house will be held at Tartan Hall at 5 pm on Wednesday, March 4. For more information, email Setser at jsetser@franklinnc.com or Petrosky at jpetrosky@stewartinc.com.