Starting March 1, visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will no longer be completely free — a first for park history.

The N.C. House of Representatives last week condemned the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s controversial proposal to enact a parking fee with passage of a resolution  that calls on Congress to block the plan.

Since its official opening in 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been free  to enter, to park, to hike, to explore. The intervening years have made free access a core principle of the park’s identity, cherished by residents of gateway communities like Bryson City and Gatlinburg — many of whom are descendants of the families forced from their homes to make way for the park’s creation.

A visit to the nation’s most popular national park could cease being free if a groundbreaking proposal  put forth by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week is enacted.

Two new changes to Sylva’s rules for downtown parking are now in effect following a pair of unanimous votes at the Sept. 9 town board meeting. 

The quarter-acre parking lot on the corner of Main and Landis streets in Sylva is officially town parking following a 4-1 vote from the town board Nov. 14. 

Construction on a 1,000-space parking deck expected to be complete at Western Carolina University by August of this year has been delayed for a May 2020 start. 

New parking is coming to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino following the Cherokee Tribal Council’s unanimous vote Aug. 2 to transfer a 4.7-acre tract to the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise. 

Seniors packed the Macon County commissioners’ meeting July 10 to lobby the county for a new senior center. 

After a successful trial run, the parking pattern on Main Street in downtown Franklin will soon be changing permanently.