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Connect Franklin

Living
9.16.2014
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Editor
The City of Franklin is experiencing tremendous growth. Currently ranked as the 14th fastest growing American city, the City of Franklin has seen a 3.9% population increase in the last year.  This growth brings numerous opportunities and challenges to the City’s transportation system. Recognizing the role that transportation plays in building and maintaining a strong community, the City of Franklin is seeking to take a comprehensive look at the community’s transportation corridors.
The City of Franklin is well positioned to begin the next phase of planning for their transportation systems. However, this plan must be different than previous efforts. While the City currently has recent studies and planning documents that address the community’s roadways, greenways, trails and pedestrian networks, much has changed in the four years since those plans were completed. The Connect Franklin: Comprehensive Transportation Plan will need to respond to the changes in growth while also taking a comprehensive look at the City’s transportation network to provide a new “blue print” for the City of Franklin.
As the City’s first Comprehensive Transportation Plan, this document identifies transportation strategies and projects for the City to implement based on the policy and goal statements set forth in the City’s Land Use Comprehensive Plan. The result is a comprehensive, detailed transportation master plan that meets the specific needs of the City by making operational improvements, creating a community-wide bicycle and pedestrian network, increasing network connectivity, and preserving the current investment in transportation infrastructure.

In the coming months, we will be exploring different components of the transportation network:

CONNECTIONS TO THE COMMUNITY: How can the transportation network in Franklin be improved to better connect neighborhoods to places people work and places they want to go? How can the roadways provide both a functional transportation role as well as a recreational role?  How can the sidewalks, trails and greenways become a part of the daily lives of our residents?

PUBLIC ACCESS AND SERVICE: This plan needs to address additional transportation infrastructure development in under-served areas of the City.  Where should future roadways be developed and how can they be connected to populated areas to broaden access to the system?

INTEGRATION WITH OTHER INITIATIVES: Several significant initiatives are underway or have recently been completed in the community that will impact Franklin for generations.  How does this plan coordinate with the ongoing development of bike facilities, pedestrian plan, transit route planning and implementation, and the City’s other ongoing initiatives? How can the transportation system be effectively integrated to provide facilities for all users?  How can existing and future neighborhoods be better connected and function as a unified system?  How does roadway, pedestrian and bicycle facilities interface with public transit and future improvements to the community’s transit infrastructure?

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: This plan needs to focus on how transportation infrastructure is impacted by the population change Franklin has been seeing. Where will new residential developments be located? How do these areas connect to existing neighborhoods and roadways? Are there new employment or commercial centers that need to be accommodated? Are there ways to ease or prevent traffic congestion in new or existing neighborhoods?

IMPLEMENTABLE STEPS: This plan needs to have a focus on implementable steps—what can be built?  How much will it cost?  What benefit does it bring to the community?  How can it be constructed and maintained within available funding?  And what is the priority of building new greenways when compared with other City efforts?

COLLABORATION OF CITY AGENCIES: The attitude towards the development of transportation infrastructure has changed.  Today, more agencies are involved with the development and operation of roadways, sidewalks, bicycle facilities and transit systems.  How is the Comprehensive Transportation Plan fit coordinated with other agencies? How can other agencies benefit from the development of a Comprehensive Transportation Plan?

This effort needs to produce the next generation of transportation master planning for the City of Franklin. We are eager to get your thoughts on the direction of the transportation system.