Letters to the Editor

Regarding the proposed bowling alley in Pooler....

Dear Editor,

I was actually excited about the prospect of a bowling alley coming to Pooler until I found out where they were planning to build it. Whether by design or blind luck, the city has appeared to do a fairly good job of smart growth along the Pooler Parkway corridor thus far. The really heavy traffic stuff (like Wal-mart and Sam’s) is close to the interstate.

Once you pass that, most of the businesses are on frontage type roads to funnel traffic off the Parkway with the restaurants and other heavier traffic establishments closest to the main road. A little further back are the professional parks with doctors, dentists and the like. The housing subdivisions are well shielded from most of the hustle and bustle of the growing and dynamic business district by being even further off the main thoroughfare and being buffered by green space and berms.

What I had assumed was actual planning and forethought on the part of the city is now threatened by the proposed location of a bowling alley that is proposed to stay open until 2AM some nights, in disturbingly close proximity to one of the subdivisions, Towne Lake. It is also proposed to be situated in an area that will funnel traffic to a roundabout that leads to the various housing developments down Godley Station Blvd.

I would love to have an entertainment option like this in our city but question the wisdom of the proposed location, especially when a cursory glance down Pooler Parkway, or even Hwy 80, east of the interstate appears to reveal ample available acreage for such a place to be constructed with much less disruption to anyone’s homes. I hope the council will see this as a bad precedent and does not throw a gutter ball by approving this project.

Jay Melvin

Pooler