
{"id":4560,"date":"2009-01-15T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4560"},"modified":"2009-01-15T07:44:27","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T15:44:27","slug":"is-this-well-managed-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/01\/15\/is-this-well-managed-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this well-managed growth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mari Weiss<\/strong><br \/>\nI am a new Carolinian. Since moving to Chapel Hill\/Carrboro, I have learned a great many things. The first thing I learned was that my house was <not> located in Chapel Hill but in a town, heretofore unknown to me, called Carrboro.<\/p>\n<p>I have also learned that, unlike living in Los Angeles, my voice matters. I have attended Carrboro town meetings where I have been permitted to address the different boards, and I have even had a column printed in a local newspaper. This is all very exciting and gratifying to me, to live somewhere that I actually feel I can make a difference.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nUpon moving to Carrboro, I went on the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website and was very excited about what I read. Their mission statement says that they value pedestrian safety and walkability. They also say that they are known for their well-managed growth.<\/p>\n<p>There are two projects coming up before town government that, if approved, will be in direct contradiction with their mission statement.<\/p>\n<p>Those projects are known as Colleton Crossing and Carolina Commons. As proposed, both developments would connect to a dead-end road in the Highlands called Claymore Road and add a thousand more car trips per day through the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>The Highlands is a housing tract of 100 homes. All the roads in the Highlands are 20 feet wide, with no sidewalks, curbs, gutters or lights. <\/p>\n<p>The original builder, Ron Weber, who still resides in this 20-year-old tract, says that the roads are at capacity now. Our roads are called sub-collector roads and were only meant to carry traffic from 38 to 100 homes.<\/p>\n<p>The Highlands has two through streets: Claymore Road and Sterling Bridge. Claymore Road connects to Rogers Road and is a dead-end to the west and Sterling Bridge connects to Claymore Road and Homestead.<\/p>\n<p>All pedestrians must walk in the street. We have six school bus pickups and drop-offs a day. Chapel Hill High School students who live in the Highlands or Fox Meadow walk along a new sidewalk on Homestead to Sterling Bridge, which is a designated school walk zone with no sidewalks.<\/p>\n<p>All of the residents of the Highlands walk, bike, exercise or play in the streets. We even have homeowners\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meetings and block parties in the street. One resident occasionally shows movies on the side of his house.<\/p>\n<p>UNC owns the land where the proposed road and the tract known as Carolina Commons are to be constructed. UNC is a national leader in pedestrian safety through the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and the Injury Prevention Center. Their own studies show that more pedestrian injuries occur with increased traffic volume and no sidewalks. Statistics show that there are many preventable child pedestrian fatalities on the same type of roads as ours. I am curious how UNC will serve as a role model for ensuring pedestrian safety when their new tract provides for 10-foot-wide walking trails and a playground while removing the only place for our neighborhood children to play \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the streets. <\/p>\n<p>The road that they are proposing to connect to the Highlands will be constructed through the woods of Bolin Creek, beginning at the tract called Carolina Commons and extending northward to a landlocked area to be called Colleton Crossing. Friends of Bolin Creek are against this road and it is in direct opposition to the Carrboro land-use ordinance, which states that no construction or grading is to occur in a flood zone. The terrain is thick with trees, is uneven and has a very steep grade. I cannot imagine the cost of grading and paving such a road or the ecological toll it may take.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, I have not heard of one penny being put aside by UNC, the developers or the Town to improve the roads of The Highlands to put in sidewalks, curbs, gutters or lights.<\/p>\n<p>Although Carrboro is pushing for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153connectivity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of its neighborhoods, why vehicular connectivity? Why not connection by bike paths and walking trails? We fear for the safety of our children. <\/p>\n<p>My only hope is that Carrboro recognizes the dangers of this kind of haphazard planning and comports with its mission statement of valuing pedestrian safety, walkability and well-managed growth.<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nMari Weiss is a resident of the Highlands neighborhood.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mari Weiss I am a new Carolinian. Since moving to Chapel Hill\/Carrboro, I have learned a great many things. The first thing I learned was that my house was located in Chapel Hill but in a town, heretofore unknown to me, called Carrboro. I have also learned that, unlike living in Los Angeles, my voice&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4561,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions\/4561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}