Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Aldermen send Smith Level Road plan back to DOT

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Staff

By Beth Mechum
Staff Writer

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen stuck to its guns Tuesday night by rejecting alternatives proposed by the state Department of Transportation to its widening plan for Smith Level Road.

The board isn’t willing to compromise just yet because the members believe a better resolution that would place more emphasis on sidewalks and bicycles lanes and less emphasis on widening roads can be reached.

“There seems to be some room for some other dialogue with policymakers on another level that might be valuable given where things are right now and the way we look at transportation,” board member Randee Haven-O’Donnell said.

The board initially discussed and rejected the widening plan by a 6-1 vote last month. The dissenting vote was from Mayor Mark Chilton. That plan included a three-lane section from the roundabout to Culbreth Road, a four-lane section from Culbreth Road to BPW Club Road and a divided four-lane section from BPW Club Road to the Morgan Creek bridge. Sidewalks and bicycle lanes were planned along the length of the 0.8-mile project.

The board agreed with residents who have said that the proposed road would be far too wide to be safe.

On Tuesday night, the board looked at and rejected three options presented by the DOT.

One option was dismissed because it was nothing more than a restating of the original plan from April.

Another option was rejected because it transferred funding for bicycle and pedestrian paths to other sources.

NCDOT representative Ed Lewis said receiving necessary funds from those sources would not be easy.

A third option included a three-lane road with a roundabout, but was rejected because road maintenance responsibilities would be transferred to Carrboro.

Though Chilton was adamant that sidewalks and bicycle lanes were the main focus of the project, he said it shouldn’t come at the cost of Carrboro’s taxpayers. He said agreeing to any of the DOT’s options would set a bad precedent.

“And that would not only have implications on us for this project, but for our other priorities,” he said.

The board approved a resolution created by Alderman Dan Coleman as a fourth option. That option is to take the board’s concerns for sidewalks and bicycles back to the policymakers in the DOT and try to find a better solution that both the town and its residents could support.

Some community members spoke in support of continued negotiations concerning adding sidewalks and bicycle lanes, saying that focusing on widened roads wouldn’t help Carrboro, but only those from other communities passing through.

Board members Haven-O’Donnell and Jacquie Gist said they were both concerned about environmental factors they thought the DOT did not consider.

Lewis explained the options presented were based on growth projections and trends put into a computer model.
“We’re not designing traffic for today, but for 25 years down the road,” he said.

Gist was particularly perturbed by that assessment, citing changes in modes of transportation citizens should make due to energy and environmental concerns and moving away from single-occupancy vehicles.

“Why do the DOT models continuously plan for people to not change their behaviors,” she asked. “If you plan for people to not change their behaviors, they won’t.”

In other town business, a request for traffic calming between James Street and Hills-borough Road near Lorraine Street was approved and the town awarded the contract for construction services for the new fire station to Central Builders Inc. of Mebane.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme