
{"id":5643,"date":"2009-04-23T10:47:40","date_gmt":"2009-04-23T18:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5643"},"modified":"2009-04-23T10:47:40","modified_gmt":"2009-04-23T18:47:40","slug":"aldermen-reject-smith-level-road-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/04\/23\/aldermen-reject-smith-level-road-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Aldermen reject Smith Level Road plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday to return plans to widen and build sidewalks along Smith Level Road to the state Department of Transportation, asking DOT officials to remove a planned four-lane segment from the design.  <\/p>\n<p>Mayor Mark Chilton cast the only dissenting vote, saying that while he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t support widening the road to four lanes, the town could be forced to wait a very long time before sidewalks are built on Smith Level Road if it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept DOT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m frustrated because there was an awful lot of rhetoric here tonight that suggests that this current situation is somehow safe, that the current situation is somehow acceptable, that it would be OK to wait another 20 years to have pedestrian improvements on Smith Level Road and Culbreth Road,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chilton said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A Tuesday night public hearing on the project was standing room only, and while many residents spoke out against the project, not a single member of the public spoke in favor of the plan. <\/p>\n<p><strong>The plan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The project dates back to 1985, when DOT identified Smith Level Road as a primary arterial in need of widening and recommended widening the road to a four-lane cross section with a median. Since then, the project has evolved to include sidewalks and bike lanes, as requested by residents and town officials who said the improvements would be vital to the safety of children walking to school along the road. <\/p>\n<p>The $6.6 million proposed project would widen Smith Level Road from just south of Ray Road to the Morgan Creek bridge and add a roundabout in front of Carrboro High School at the intersection of Smith Level and Rock Haven roads. The plan includes 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 are planned along the length of the 0.8-mile project.  <\/p>\n<p>Many residents said that while the road needs sidewalks and bike lanes, widening the road to four lanes would make the road unsafe for children walking to school. Three schools are located in the project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vicinity: Carrboro High, Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and Culbreth Middle School.<\/p>\n<p>Board members said they realized that if they rejected the DOT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal, it could be years before the town would get sidewalks and bike lanes along Smith Level Road. However, several board members said that they would not widen the road in order to get the sidewalks. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Where I come down on this is that I think that the four-lane segment is wrong,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board member Dan Coleman said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a waste of money for the state. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dangerous. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prioritize the safety of the school children.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBoard member Jacquie Gist said widening the road would only encourage more people to drive and not to use public transit or other modes of transportation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just think if you plan for things to continue as they are, things will continue as they are,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. However, she added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We do need [pedestrian improvements], so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have to really push DOT to give us the money for sidewalks at least.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Chilton said he agreed that the four-lane segment was unnecessary, but felt that the need for sidewalks was too pressing for the board to reject the DOT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal and risk losing the money for the project altogether. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the idea of having a four-lane road through there stinks &#8230; but I also think that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s totally unnecessary and totally unacceptable to go on for untold years on into the future having no sidewalks and no bike lanes along those roads,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chilton said. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Particular concern<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lisa Stuckey, chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education, said board members were particularly concerned about the proposed roundabout in front of Carrboro High, which does not include a pedestrian signal. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153[DOT officials] told me that a pedestrian signal would be inappropriate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, adding that the only option for stopping traffic would be a crossing guard, costing $10,000 a year. <\/p>\n<p>In addition, Stuckey said if the road is widened to four lanes, adding sidewalks would not enable them to increase the walk zone for Frank Porter Graham Elementary. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We would never have elementary school students crossing a four-lane road,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>Several residents also criticized the design\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use of data that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take into account bus ridership and the widening of U.S. 15-501. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anybody here has been able to understand the need for this project,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jason Henning said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually been a decrease in traffic on Smith Level Road&#8230;. The debilitating congestion that the DOT has projected for the past 10 years simply has not come to pass.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Members of the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board also urged board members to reject the DOT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal, saying that any safety gained by building sidewalks and bike lanes would be negated by increases in traffic brought by widening the road. <\/p>\n<p>DOT staff will review aldermen and public comments at a meeting on Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday to return plans to widen and build sidewalks along Smith Level Road to the state Department of Transportation, asking DOT officials to remove a planned four-lane segment from the design. Mayor Mark Chilton cast the only dissenting vote, saying&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643","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=5643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5644,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5643\/revisions\/5644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}