Oct. 5, 2026
Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
A downtown circulation study labeled “M-3” was the third item of new business on Brevard City Council’s Oct. 5 agenda, but it was the main topic of public comment for the first 55 minutes of Monday night’s three-hour meeting at City Hall.
A public input session for the “In the Loop” downtown Brevard circulation study was held Aug. 31 at the Transylvania County Library with the Land of Sky regional planning organization and the City of Brevard, in partnership with the private Raleigh-based McAdams planning, design, and engineering firm, sharing initial plans for a proposed downtown circulation corridor for Broad and Caldwell streets around downtown Brevard.
The Land of Sky study analyzed traffic patterns, safety trends, pedestrian activity, bicycle connections, parking, and future growth in and around downtown Brevard to explore several options for Broad and Caldwell streets.
Among the suggestions presented to local leadership more than a month ago was a possible one-way pairing of those two major thoroughfares that would loop traffic around the center of downtown Brevard, as well as suggested updates to the existing two-way configuration.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, opposition to that possible traffic configuration came fast and furious and very few who addressed Council members for almost an hour wanted to be “in the loop” with that part of the circulation conversation.
The first was Adam Perkins, downtown resident and president of the board of directors for the Heart of Brevard downtown business district.
“We support the goals of the circulation study, but any alternative must also be weighed against its effect on our locally owned businesses, walkability, and the events that we bring to downtown,” he said speaking for his organization. “For that reason, we have serious concerns about converting Broad and Cadwell into one-way couplets and we respectfully ask City Council to remove that from any further consideration. A change of this magnitude would fundamentally alter how people enter, navigate and do business. Downtown economic vitality must be part of this conversation.”
Other downtown merchants and residents echoed those sentiments, including three-minute pleas for understanding from Brevard College President Brad Andrews, Highland Books’ Leslie Loggeman, Local Color gift shop owner Paul Hawkins, local real estate mogul Jeremy Owen, former City Council members Dee Dee Perkins and Rodney Locks, Tamika Hunter with the Brevard / Transylvania County Chamber of Commerce, Clark Lovelace with the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority and Burton Hodges of the Transylvania County Economic Alliance. None spoke in favor of turning two major downtown streets into a one-traffic loop directing traffic around Brevard’s picturesque downtown.
O.P. Taylor’s toy store proprietor and WSQL Radio owner John Taylor was still wearing his colorful trademark propeller hat when he was the last local business owner to voice opposition to the proposal and offered another idea to counter Brevard traffic issues almost an hour later.
“I think I had a great idea and I pitched it to DOT, but was sort of put off at the library when I told it to them and they were like, ‘No, we’re going to do these one-way pairs’” Taylor began. “Instead of making Caldwell one-way and Broad one-way, if we had one lane going one way and one lane going the other, and the center lane is turning lane, that would solve the problem. The biggest problems we are having downtown are people coming up the hill and trying to turn onto Main Street; there’s nowhere for the cars to go, so they back up into the college. The ‘look’ of downtown is that we have a traffic problem, but we wouldn’t if we had that center lane as a turning lane with a light. People would be able to go back and forth, and we’d still have the quaint little downtown that we still have. Plus, it would slow traffic down.”
Fifty minutes later in the meeting, City Council took up discussion of the Land of Sky’s “In the Loop” downtown Brevard traffic circulation study which had been paid for several years ago through discretionary funds.
The city’s Downtown Master Plan Implementation and Downtown Advisory Committee had previously recommended removing the “one-way pairs” concept for Broad and Caldwell streets at its Sept. 9 meeting.
After hearing the vocal opposition to that proposal earlier Monday night, Council members unanimously agreed to remove the “one-way pairs’ part of the circulation study and consider the other information therein.
“To think of one-way streets, especially in a city of this size, I just can’t wrap my head around it,” said Councilwoman Pamela Holder. “Hearing from the businesses here and how it will impact our college here, I think most of us probably agree to take this out of the study. Just remove this one-way pair as an option.”
“I’m on the Transylvania County Transportation Advisory Committee and I hear a lot from those folks about how egregious and difficult it is to move through downtown,” Councilman Lauren Wise added. “Like our actual parking situation, there is a set of perceptions and a list of facts. I think we need to be really careful about what the facts are and what the perceptions are. We cannot lose the core beauty of our downtown because of a perception.”