If there is anything more tedious to plow through than a traffic impact analysis (TIA), please don’t forward it on to us.
In a lot of instances of public policy, the devil is in the details. A TIA is pretty much all details and the devil is in trying to make sense of it.
So credit the earnest citizens from Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth (NRG) for giving the recently issued traffic impact analysis for Carolina North a good going over and for finding ways to connect the potential results of the new development to the people who will most experience them.
By meeting with neighborhoods closest to the project and walking them through the impacts, the NRG has done a great public service in raising both awareness and understanding.
It’s long been noted that Carolina North is a massive undertaking, but finding ways to explain how that affects the everyday lives of residents, commuters and those who will live and work at the place is difficult.
The NRG effort can’t be defined as NIMBY by any stretch of the imagination.
There’s no attempt being made to put up roadblocks to the university’s long-range goal of an academic mixed-use development. The goal of reasonable, well-managed growth is of mutual benefit to those already here and those who will arrive in the years to come.
No plan is perfect, and it’s up to all parties to get involved and strike a balance that meets a variety of goals. As we have seen in the development of a plan for the main campus, pushback from those most closely affected by projects often yields better results for all parties.
As a result of its location, Carolina North will have an impact on neighborhoods unlike anything imagined here in a very long while.
Public input and involvement is the surest way to make certain that maintaining a high quality of life now and into the future remains an overarching goal.
In the earlier planning documents and discussions for Carolina North, some now dating back almost a decade, use of the existing rail corridor to provide efficient and effective mass transit to and from the site was prominently discussed. In the most recent iteration of planning for the site, rail was given little mention, except as a ‘long term’ strategy i.e. 20+ years out. It could be very practially be thoroughly integrated into a short-mid term strategy 10 year planning horizon to coincide with both the developlment of the site and our long overdue Triangle Transit system.
I live relatively near the rail line and while it might impact ‘my life’ slightly ‘negatively’, I believe that using the rail corridor could be a very effective means of preventing the types of traffic jams and consequent environmental problems predicted while allowing the kind of robust and compact development that would make Carolina North a truly world class development and major amenity for our region. Let’s get rail back on the table.