Letter: Stop the Balfour Parkway

Graphic by Lori Deaton

I am a concerned citizen against the proposed Balfour Parkway. My concern is based upon my home and community being included in half of the 24 proposed routes. After researching, I discovered that the Balfour Parkway will not address the “primary purpose of the proposed project to improve east-west vehicular traffic in Henderson County” as described in the N.C. DOT document “Balfour Parkway — Proposed new location roadway from N.C. 191 to U.S. 64 — Henderson County. STIP Project No. R-5744.”

Existing and forecast traffic patterns do not support this! The proposed expressway, depending upon the exact path, could impact anywhere from 221 to 440 homes per N.C. DOT documents at a taxpayer cost of $160-plus million. The surrounding area could suffer from destruction of homes, churches, cemeteries, orchards resulting in bifurcation of neighborhoods, traffic noise intrusion, vehicle pollution and elimination of the small-town feel of Henderson County. The Balfour Parkway will change forever the landscape of Henderson County.

If east/west travel is impeded by current roads, which has yet to be proven, there are other, less destructive and intrusive alternatives of accomplishing relief, either via fixing the existing road system or placing the expressway through less populated areas (open space).

I have aligned myself with the Stop the Balfour campaign to cancel this project. Please join us and sign our petition at www.stopthebalfour.com.

Thank you for your consideration.

— Greg Heimburg
Hendersonville

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2 thoughts on “Letter: Stop the Balfour Parkway

  1. jason

    We definitely need the Balfour Parkway. Hendersonville is a mess, and this will help more people than it hurts. The area is growing and Hendersonville needs to keep up.

  2. tom

    It won’t cost us anything more. If they don’t use the money here, they will in another part of the state.

    At the end of the day, the Balfour Parkway will take traffic off the side roads. Its definitely needed. Greg can always build a new better house. I am for the state giving him more compensation.

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