No Route 3 In The Mountains!

I am a reporter at The Northeast Georgian in Cornelia, Georgia. The following column was written by me and published in our Friday, June 10 edition. Our newspaper has received many calls and letters expressing concern over the proposed Interstate 3 through Habersham County. I feel it is important that you are aware of opinions in our community regarding this freeway. --Jenée Wilde

I-3: Just say 'no'

Reactions have been consistent from people I've spoken with about the federal government's proposal to build an interstate freeway along Highway 17: First they're shocked, then they're dismayed. While officials in Georgia's economically-depressed flatlands may thrill at the prospect of commerce and jobs brought by a freeway route, I shudder at the thought of our quiet mountain lifestyle destroyed.

Yes, Interstate 3 would bring economic development to the area, but at what cost?

Studies have shown that 80 percent of jobs in America are located within five miles of an interstate. Think about it. That's a ten-mile swath through the county guaranteed to collect shopping malls, convenience stores, hotels and warehouses (not to mention congestion, noise and pollution). Ballooning out from that, don't forget, are the subdivisions, grocery stores, pharmacies, and additional convenience stores that serve all the busy workers that serve the interstate. Call it a 20 mile-wide stain of "economic progress."

Now, imagine that morass of densely-packed development overlaid on our quiet country Highway 17 as it meanders through quaint Clarkesville and picturesque Nacoochee Valley. Starting to get the picture? For more than a decade, the thrust of Habersham's land use planning has been this: high-intensity industry and commerce in the south end; land conservation and low-intensity development in the north. Can you imagine what a lug wrench in the works of our land use plan this interstate will be? If the feasibility study determines the freeway should follow Highway 17 in the north, our county's land use regulations will be rendered useless, trampled on by the interests of giant-sized business and politics. They don't care about our county; they only want to get the goods from the port of Savannah to the Midwest without Atlanta's traffic hassle.

What makes Habersham - indeed, all our Northeast Georgia counties - unique is our quality of life. We have the beauty and quiet of mountain living unspoiled by congestion and sprawl. We want economic development to support our inevitable growth, but we want it our way - planned, controlled; not forced on us by Brobdingnagian corporations and politicians so focused on stepping over the Appalachians they can't hear the squeals of the Lilliputions they squash along the way. Our county government's motto calls Habersham the "Heart of the Georgia Mountains." Our two major arteries - Highways 365 and 441 - have open access, allowing freedom of movement to other roads and lanes like veins and capillaries in that heart.

Interstate 3 will sever those capillaries, dividing north from south and ending our freedom of movement. Local traffic will be squeezed through overpasses like constricted valves. Land developers will fatten on a commercial feeding frenzy while the life slowly suffocates from the area. By consuming this "windfall" of economic development, the county will become a wheezing, lumbering, unhealthy stepchild of metropolitan Atlanta. In very little time, heart disease will kill the "Heart of the Georgia Mountains."

If you don't believe me, just look south to where the giants have already had their way.

Unless concerned citizens make known very soon their disagreement with the proposed interstate, momentum alone with carry it through. Funding for the feasibility study has passed both the House and the Senate; President Bush should see it on his desk by July. Once signed, it's as good as done. Look for bulldozers in your back yard in about five years.

If you want our county to have a say in its future, call or write State Rep. Ben Bridges, State Sen. Nancy Schaefer, U.S. Congressman Charlie Norwood and U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and tell them what you think. Encourage our elected officials let their voices be heard, as well. After all, the Lilliputians did manage to vote Gulliver off the island.

Jenée Wilde is a staff reporter for The Northeast Georgian.