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Both attendance and complaints were sparse Thursday night at a Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) environmental hearing on widening Montvale Road to three lanes from Lamar Alexander Parkway to just south of Hill Court.

About 50 people turned out, a far cry from earlier hearings which drew hundreds. Decreasing the widening project from five to three lanes and leaving the Greenway unaffected apparently made the difference.

The project is funded through the final environmental assessment plan, which includes taking public comments for 21 more days. Then the city will have to approach the state legislature about funding other phases up to final design.

"It will be 20 years before Montvale gets widened. We'll all be retired by then," said Tommy Hunt, Maryville City Councilman and president of Calloway Oil, owners of an affected Exxon Station on Montvale Road,

After Tom Love of the TDOT environmental office in Nashville and Mike Deacon of the SAIC consulting firm in Oak Ridge explained the plan, only one person asked a question and one made a statement.

Cecil Carmen of Piedmont Circle was relieved to find his house would not be taken, although "a little slab of my yard may be taken."

Marian Kelly, who lives on Old Piney Road, said "widening the road will increase the speed. Right now you really can't go over 45 (miles per hour). The speed will be even faster going into the curve by Forest Hill Baptist Church and the apartment buildings."

The apparent lack of concern contrasted sharply with earlier public hearings. At the Dec. 4, 2003, hearing, 321 people turned out to hear TDOT's initial plan that would have taken part of the Greenway and widened the road to five lanes. Citizens objected to the Greenway impact and said a five-lane road would be too intrusive in their community.

Another hearing on July 8, 2004, drew 289 citizens. This plan called for a portion of the road to be five lanes and the other three lanes.

On March 10, 2005, a hearing was held on the three-lane plan, which drew 149 people.

12-foot lanes

Love said essentially the road would have two 12-foot lanes going in each direction from Lamar Alexander Parkway to south of Hill Court, with a 12-foot center turn lane and four-foot paved shoulders.

At the intersection with Mountain View Avenue, Montvale would have an added turn lane, a traffic signal and a crosswalk. There would be a sidewalk on the east side going south from Lamar Alexander Parkway, past Montvale Cemetery to Montvale Station Road.

An 8-foot multi-use path for bicyclists and pedestrians would run the width of the three miles, separated from the road.

A 300-foot section of Pistol Creek would be relocated to the west at Mountain View.

At the intersection with Montvale Station Road, Montvale would get an extended left turn lane and new right hand turn lane.

Deacon said there will be some shifts from one side to the other to straighten out curves along the three-mile section planned for widening.

Widening Montvale Road, which is classified an Urban Minor Arterial street, would require at least parts of four businesses and 16 residences be acquired.

Plan by spring

Deacon said he "anticipates finding no significant impacts on the environment."

Love said hopes are that the environmental document will be completed this spring.

Harold Hord, owner/operator of Maryville Building Supply, said he has no problem with this plan. It will take two fields his mother owns adjacent to Montvale Road. However, the five-lane plan would have come right through his business.

"What saved me was the people that objected to taking part of the Greenway," Hord said.

Charles Caruthers, owner of the BP Station, said the plan comes right up to his car wash and he is trying to talk TDOT into taking some land on the other side of the road so he can keep his car wash.

Hunt said the plan would likely take the Exxon station because frontage is so narrow at the business.

TDOT pictures of what Montvale looks like now, especially at Mountain View Avenue and Montvale Station Roads, were given to the city of Maryville. They are on display in the Maryville Municipal Center Council room for interested citizens to view.