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Projects could harm Bolin efforts

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Staff

Sharon Cook

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will soon be voting on a project that could negate countless hours of work by the Friends of Bolin Creek, along with wasting thousands of dollars of Carrboro taxpayer money that has already been spent on staff hours used to help identify conservation areas in the Upper Bolin Creek Watershed.

In addition to the 1,000-acre Carolina North site bequeathed to UNC, about 62 acres north of Homestead Road and traversed diagonally by Bolin Creek were given to the University by Horace Williams. The tract is surrounded on all sides by developed or soon-to-be developed neighborhoods, including Lake Hogan Farms, Winmore, Camden, Highlands, Fox Meadow and Colleton Crossing, which together will support over 1,500 homes.

The university plans to build 166 faculty and staff homes on about 40 acres in the southwest portion of the parcel on the west side of Bolin Creek adjacent to Lake Hogan Farms and Winmore. Providing affordable housing for entry-level faculty and staff is a good thing. But why are we building it just far enough from the main Carolina North campus to assure that the new residents will be dependent upon vehicle transportation? With a thousand acres available on the main Carolina North campus, why aren’t we building the initial staff and faculty homes there, where residents will be able to walk to work, shops and schools, and have convenient access to reliable public transit?

If approved as recommended by Carrboro town planners, the project will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of additional dollars by forcing UNC to build a road on the east side of Bolin Creek that the university has repeatedly stated it does not want to build.
That road will literally pave the way for the Colleton Crossing developers to double their density. In doing so, the Carrboro plan will destroy one of the last remaining old-growth natural preserves along our community’s Bolin Creek corridor north of Homestead Road. UNC would like to preserve as much of the natural area along Bolin Creek as possible while maximizing pedestrian and bicycle access.

The Bolin Creek corridor north of Homestead provides safe, walkable access to the creek from multiple neighborhoods, much like the access to Bolin Creek from Carrboro neighborhoods near Pathway Drive. It’s an area that the Friends of Bolin Creek have worked tirelessly for years to preserve for future generations. Will the same board of aldermen who spent over a million dollars to purchase and improve the Adams tract in central Carrboro now spend at least that much local and state taxpayer money on unwanted road connections and improvements only to destroy a similar natural preserve in northern Carrboro?

The public hearing continues on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in Carrboro Town Hall. If you care about stopping wasteful government spending at the local level, preserving the Bolin Creek corridor and maintaining pedestrian and bike-friendly connections throughout Carrboro, please let your elected leaders know via the town clerk at townclerk@ci.carrboro.nc.us.

Sharon Cook is a resident of the Highlands neighborhood in northern Carrboro.

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