|
Thursday, 15 November 2007 |
 |  | Aycock
| Phillips
|
by NICK IANNIELLO
News Reporter
In the aftermath of the recent Boone Town Council elections, two new members have been elected to the council. Liz Aycock and Stephen Phillips spoke with The Appalachian about some of the big issues affecting students.
The Appalachian: A big problem for many students is traffic and parking. What do you think Boone needs to do to improve on the current traffic situations?
Liz Aycock:
There aren’t any easy solutions to the traffic situation. We live in an
area that people want to be in. I think to encourage more alternative
transportations and do whatever we as a town can do to encourage more
walking, cycling, bike sharing. We’ve made the AppalCART free for
everyone, which I think has helped. I think we should get out on our
two feet and walk a little more, and all be a little healthier.
Stephen Phillips:
What I would like to see is more student housing within walking
distance to ASU. That’s the primary source to parking and traffic
problems. There’s certain areas that are closer to campus that would be
good for student housing. Not only are these areas close to campus but
they don’t encroach on already existing neighborhoods. These areas are
both east and west Howard Street and also the area near Hardee’s.
TA:
It’s no secret that a lot of students would like to see liquor by the
drink in Boone. What are your feelings on bars serving liquor drinks?
LA: If the majority wanted liquor by the drink I would be for it.
SP:
First off there needs to be some changes to the current regulations
before liquor by the drink would be appropriate to Boone. Basically you
don’t want too many bars congregated in one area. There could be an
increase in behavioral problems and police being called because of the
alcohol. But I think right now a lot of students are driving to Blowing
Rock to drink. But they live in Boone and maybe they’ve got a
designated driver and maybe they don’t. But I think if we had liquor by
the drink in Boone maybe it would minimize some of the danger there.
TA: What are your feelings on “big box” retailers in Boone?
LA:
Well right now our ordinances allow any store to be 150,000 square
feet. The only big box store that our ordinances would prevent would be
a Super Wal-Mart. I think that 150,000 square feet is plenty big.
SP: I think a lot of people
are scared that big box retailers will hurt the smaller businesses, but
I think Boone has a large enough population that we wouldn’t be
adversely affected by that. First off we’ve got the student population
and the tourist population in addition to the permanent residents. I
don’t want to be over run by big box retailers, but I don’t think
they’re going to be as detrimental to small businesses as some people
say. If we do have big box retailers I’d like to have some very
specific design standards, so that they don’t look like your typical
big box building. It would make it a more attractive building so that
if that retailer did go out of business then another retailer could
take up shop and you wouldn’t really notice the difference.
TA: Do you have any ideas to help finish plans to extend the Greenway to Appalachian’s campus?
LA: It’s a huge priority of mine, and I haven’t had a chance to study it too much. There’s really no safe route across town.
SP:
I know they have a route proposed but I know that the people on that
street are opposed to it. There might be some alternative routes we
could take and I’d like to talk with these property owners and see if
there’s some kind of easement that would allow the Greenway to go
through. The problem with the existing proposed route is that it just
goes too close to people’s houses. In one case I think it would be
within 3 feet on one lady’s house. I wouldn’t want the Greenway to be 3
feet from my house either.
TA: How do you think Appalachian and the Town of Boone can best improve their relationship?
LA:
I think we need to have at least bimonthly meetings together and we
need to do a growth strategy plan. There doesn’t need to be secrets or
animosity or any kind of ugliness between the two - it just needs to be
open dialogue. If we know what our plans are, I think we can work
together well.
SP:
I think we need to get to the table and start doing better long-range
planning from both the town and the university’s perspective and…talk
about traffic, student housing, affordable housing.
TA:
The planned location for Appalachian’s new College of Education
building has been a controversial topic. What do you think the best
solution to the problem is?
LA:
There’s several problems with the plans according to our zoning and the
town’s codes. I think the town needs to compromise for ASU and I think
ASU needs to compromise for the town. I’m willing to work with the
university.
SP:
ASU’s obviously growing and there’s pressure for it to grow. So we just
need to figure out where the university’s going to expand to. As far as
that proposed site, I think with some creative design solutions that
building could fit very well into that location. There’s a family that
still lives next door to the site…if you could come up with some kind
of sound barrier between the building and the house. If people are
concerned about the height you could taper the roof a little bit more.
Trackback(0)
 |
News 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
