Council forwards facilities plans

The few concerns town officials aired about Chapel Hill's plans to improve its sidewalk and bicycle facilities will be considered formally now that the Town Council has referred them to other groups.

After a public forum Monday at which no members of the public spoke, the council decided that all comments from the meeting be referred to the town manager and various committees, which now have the task of creating a follow-up report.

The town's long-range principal planner, Gordon Sutherland, said Monday that the preliminary recommendations were shaped by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan and adopted as part of the town's Comprehensive Plan on Oct. 27.

The action plan calls for improvement of sidewalks, cross-walks, off-road paths and some bicycle routes and facilities. It also suggests that the town carry out small-area studies of certain intersections.

"The action plan really sets out a long-range vision for the town," Sutherland said. One of the main goals of the plan is to improve areas that would connect schools, businesses, recreational areas and transit sites, he added.

The goal of the construction plan is to fill in missing bits of sidewalk that prevent people from getting from "point a to point b," Sutherland explained.

"Our recommendation was that town funds should be used on town-maintained streets," he said.

The town has $600,000 in funds from general obligation bonds available for sidewalk construction.

"I think sidewalk improvements are a very admirable goal," said Wayne Pein, a member of the town's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Pein cited a lack of crosswalks on Airport Road and at other locations as one of the important issues facing pedestrians.

But he said he did not agree with some aspects of the action plan.

"I actually am against most of the recommendations of the committee," he said.

Some ideas in the plan, such as adding new bike lanes, might segregate bikers from the drivers who should use the same road spaces, Pein said. He added that he thinks widening existing lanes or adding new ones, at least where feasible, is a better option.

The report provides a list of both town- and state-maintained streets where improvements might be needed.

Areas along Legion Road, McCauley Street and University Drive, as well as Rosemary Street, are on the list of town streets. The list also includes state-maintained thoroughfares such as Airport and Culbreth roads.

But the town will not be the only entity to make decisions about which roads need attention.

Many local roads are maintained by the N.C. Department of Transportation. The report recommends that the town request that NCDOT investigate possible improvements.

At the Dec. 6 Town Council meeting, the council will be presented with a follow-up report and further discuss the plans.

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