Once upon a time in Natchez, if you wanted to avoid the congestion of the heart of the city, the solution was easy — take the bypass.

Depending upon the time of day and the season of the year, taking the bypass today can cause some significant slowdowns.

In addition to all of the urban sprawl that has filled in the highway’s edges over the years, two school zones and a number of high-traffic retailers also dot the bypass.

It’s ironic.

Build a new road to alleviate traffic on an existing, congested road and over time an interesting thing happens.

The new road begins to attract more development and with the new development comes more traffic and more congestion. Eventually, the bypass needs a bypass.

Highway builders and planners face this challenge all the time — it’s the law of unintended consequences.

The law isn’t scientific, but it’s pretty much always on track. Most actions have unintended consequences.

But unintended consequences often get a bad rap, and that’s too bad.

Sometimes they lead to great things.

One of them may be lost in the discussion over whether or not the community will support plans for constructing a recreation complex just off the bypass.

The plan isn’t finalized by any means, but the rough details involve the City of Natchez, Adams County and the Natchez-Adams School Board partnering together on the recreation complex.

We’ve all heard some of the benefits of a new recreation complex.

Supporters point to the economic development benefits.

Tournaments are big money makers and if you add a good facility in a city with enough hotel rooms and other attractions, the equation looks good.

In addition to the prospect of luring out-of-towners with fat wallets into the city to play at tournaments, having better recreation facilities improves the quality of life for locals, too.

That’s a highly important aspect of the whole thing. That’s especially true if you’re one of the dozens of parents who have children playing — and practicing — sports at various locations all over town. Those parents would love to have a central location for all things recreation.

Sure, economic development and improved quality of life for our youth and their parents are great motivators.

But there’s an unintended, but important, consequence of the proposed recreation plan — more public involvement, or at least more public awareness, of the public school system.

By having the recreation facility essentially wrap around the Natchez High School campus, use of the facility could, by unintended consequence, foster more public support for the school.

In particular, having the facility adjacent to or on school property could slowly begin to break down the false belief in some residents’ minds that the public schools are all bad.

Such a shift in public sentiment may not happen overnight, but it could happen.

But then again, several decades ago, few folks would believe that the new bypass would one day need a bypass of its own.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.