There's widespread consensus that Cranberry's infamous traffic bottleneck -- the Freedom Road corridor between the Beaver County border on the west and Route 19 on the east -- must be uncorked. The questions of how it should be done and what it should look like afterward soon will be the focus of public debate, and a lot of disagreement is anticipated.

Cranberry supervisors agreed last Thursday to move forward with a plan to create a public forum to discuss the Freedom Road corridor. The board unanimously passed a resolution establishing a transportation and land use planning process that keys on the creation of three study committees, each of which would be asked to evaluate one of three specific target zones in the corridor.

Under discussion for decades, the latest approach to what was called the Crows Run problem was abandoned in the late 1990s after months of debate and discord among municipalities in the region. Crows Run referred to the corridor between Route 65 in Beaver County and Route 19 in Cranberry, Zelienople and Marshall. Unable to reach agreement on the best way to improve east-west access, a piecemeal approach was adopted and Cranberry began lobbying for state funds to widen the Freedom Road bridge over the Pennsylvania Turnpike so that the road on either side of the bridge could be widened.

Township planner John Trant Jr. said Cranberry remains committed to increasing capacity on Freedom Road. "The road is more that 230 percent over capacity," he said.

But he and other township officials acknowledge that the current transportation philosophy funnels funds to repair roads and bridges.

The township has decided to draft a plan for how the road should look "just in case" money should become available.

The mere prospect of a public discussion on the issue brought dozens of residents and business owners to supervisors' meetings Aug. 28 and last Thursday.

There are two primary concerns: Those who own residential and business property immediately adjacent to Freedom Road want the land to be rezoned to a more intensive and economically valuable commercial use. Those who own residential property just beyond that are fearful of being next door to an even busier commercial corridor with no buffer between them.

It's a conundrum, Mr. Trant acknowledged.

"The township doesn't have a position on this at this point," he said.

The root of the problem is the unplanned way development has occurred along Freedom Road. At its eastern terminus with Route 19 at Cranberry Mall, the road is primarily commercial, dotted with businesses, several of which have morphed from one-time residential property. The Fernway neighborhood lies just a stone's throw from the mall on the north side of Freedom Road.

Moving westward, the uses are just as mixed.

Cranberry Supervisors Chairman Dick Hadley said the issue is difficult because the corridor is "densely developed and it occurred prior to our land use regulations."

"We need to figure out a way of addressing our transportation needs while balancing those with the needs of the property owners throughout the corridor. And we need to find a land use solution that addresses the conflict among those property owners,'' Mr. Trant said.

He sees three areas to focus on: one at Haine School Road, one near Parkwood and Valley Forge drives, and one at Powell Road.

A public meeting will be scheduled to seek input from property owners in the vicinity, and separate meetings will be set for the three study committees. Ultimately, their recommendations would be presented to the township's planning advisory committee, then forwarded to the township supervisors. No dates are set.

Mr. Trant said all options will be on the table, from the extreme of a four-lane expressway to a roadway flanked by sidewalks and bike lanes. "It's all up for discussion,'' he said.