The N.C. Department of Transportation is mulling four options for a new road in Macon County that would facilitate future development, but some members of the community wonder why a fifth option — simply improving the existing road — isn’t on the list.

Franklin will soon have a new slate of comprehensive guidelines regulating development and promoting smart growth principles.

An overhaul of the town’s development ordinances has been four years in the making. The town board intends to pass the new regulations before November when three of the six board members face a crowded election.

Unlike most town and county governments in Western North Carolina, Franklin’s elected leaders had the foresight more than five decades ago to pass zoning regulations.

We want the state Agricultural Research Station in Waynesville to remain open, but the Senate budget proposal that attempts to weed out duplication and conduct agricultural research more efficiently isn’t such a bad idea.

For years, Jack Lansford and his mountain biking buddies in Franklin would have to load up their bikes and hit the road for a minimum of 30 minutes before reaching the nearest trailhead. As any biker, hiker or paddler knows, the longer the drive to reach your play ground, the less frequently you find yourself doing what you love.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The duck egg is just slightly larger than the chicken egg, its shell a little harder, making it the perfect egg for Rebekah Joy Brown to turn into a Christmas tree ornament.

Franklin’s elected leaders will review how much it would cost to replace the siding on a town-owned building in downtown before deciding whether to relocate administration offices there.

With Wal-Mart’s future in Franklin in limbo, business owners near the existing big-box store continue to worry they’ll lose the economic engine that drives their bottom lines.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Franklin town officials have turned down a request made by the owners of the Wal-Mart plaza in Franklin to help encourage expansion in the store’s current location along the U.S. 441 bypass rather than move forward with company plans to build a new Supercenter.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff writer

The Town of Franklin is taking steps toward implementing its recently adopted Principals of Growth, hiring both a town planner and GIS mapping specialist.