Development pressures, traffic flow, safety concerns and the need for land-use planning all played a part in prompting the study, the report said. Its recommendations seek a balance among development, access to the highway and the need to maintain through traffic.

The report identified key issues raised in talks with local officials and at public hearings:

* Development pressures are growing along US-77, especially south of Winfield and adjacent to Strother Field. There was concern about the potential impact of a new hospital at the 242 Road intersection.

* Safety concerns were raised about a number of intersections throughout the study corridor.

* Concerns were expressed about decreasing mobility, especially between the two communities.

The US-77 corridor is defined as extending from the highway's intersection with the Winfield bypass (K-360) to State Line Road at the Oklahoma border south of Arkansas City.

Winfield city manager Warren Porter called collaboration the key to getting KDOT's approval for the plan and transportation improvements recommended in it.

With the plan in hand KDOT is more likely to say yes to funding requests, Porter said, but "in the end we won't get approval unless everybody signs onto it."

Arkansas City city manager Doug Russell called the plan a guide. "A plan like this is a dynamic thing that has to be adapted to change as time goes on," he said.

Cowley County administrator LeRoy Alsup said he would like to see a unified planning board set up by the two cities and the county. Smith and Bonfy agreed this would be a good idea. McNeish did not comment.

The report recommends regulating land use within a half mile on both sides of the center line of US-77. Those areas could be zoned for appropriate uses including industrial, commercial, residential (low-density, high-density and rural housing), public parks and an airport-approach zone.

Existing city and county planning commissions would recommend such zoning to their elected governing bodies. On matters related to land-use within the corridor, those bodies would make their decisions in consultation with KDOT.

"Close coordination between the Partnership is essential since authority for some preservation tools (for appropriate land use in the corridor) are vested in the state and others are vested in the local governments," the report said.

One tool for administering land use might be an overlay district for the corridor, the report suggested. It explicitly disavowed any suggestion that the corridor study should lead to countywide zoning.

"It is not the intention of this Plan to institute county-wide zoning," the report said. "Rather, the intention is to facilitate development within the Study Corridor in a consistent manner with the Plan's long-term transportation goals."

A US-77 Oversight Committee to serve as an advisory body is recommended. It would be comprised of representatives of the cities, the county and KDOT.

The committee would be co-chaired by a local and a KDOT representative and would meet at least twice a year.

Other tools mentioned for land-use administration are subdivision regulations and moratoria on specific developments to allow needed governmental actions to take place.