One month ago, the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization moved forward with a plan to connect various parts of northern Hall County with a new east-west road.
The idea was to make room for new growth and enable people to move more easily across the county. Most of the roads in Hall currently travel north-south and drivers wanting to get from the North-East side of Lake Lanier to the North-West either need to take back-roads or drive into and then out of Gainesville. However, new revisions to the plans have caused concerns amongst some local citizens.
Concern About the Olympic Venue
Initial plans for the road ran focused on expanding existing roads. Under consideration was a route along Mount Vernon Road, Jim Hood Road and then Browning Bridge Road before passing close to the new Don Carter State Park.
Possible new routes are further south and involve the construction of entirely new roads. At the west end of the routes, the road would pass over rowing lanes at the Lake Lanier Olympic Venue, one of the lake's most valuable tourist attractions.
Concern About Expense
Whereas the initial route relied upon existing roads, the new plans under consideration would require new roads and bridges over the lake and would likely require the purchase of substantially more property to make room for construction.
Concern About Political Influence
Also a worry about the Connector is that the new route proposals may have been influenced by Congressman Nathan Deal. The Congressman's family and staff live along Nopone Road and Clarks Bridge Road in North Hall which are very close to the initial route plan and might have been expanded or subject to heavier traffic flow.
We contacted Nathan Deal's office about the notion that they influenced the plans so that the potential routes were moved away from their property. They replied with a prepared statement:
"It’s not prudent to spend taxpayer dollars to study, engineer and plan a perimeter route in Hall County that includes multiple crossings of Lake Lanier or the Chattahoochee River. The time and money required for environmental issues alone will only delay the goal of improving traffic flow. There are existing routes that can be followed and could be redesigned or improved to accomplish the overall goal.If we’re going to go forward and study unrealistic and unattainable project routes, then we should not be selective and look at every possible route through Gainesville and Hall County.”
Because that statement avoided the main allegation, that Deal and/or his family/staff pressured the move for their own reasons, we asked them directly whether they denied it. Their response:
"Our statement speaks for itself."
Document of Public Plans for the Northern Connector
Below is the public document about the plans from the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization:
Map of Public Plans for the Northern Connector
Below is a map of the possible routes drawn from the public documents:
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