Chapel Hill intersection could affect another Walgreens

A dangerous Chapel Hill intersection is playing a decisive role in the attempt to bring another Walgreens to Franklin Street.

The drug store cannot move into the former site of Walker’s BP Service Station at 1500 E. Franklin St. until the town addresses the problematic intersection of East Franklin Street and Estes Drive.

Between 2003 and 2006, 56 car accidents occurred in the intersection. The intersection is the seventh most dangerous in town, council member Penny Rich said.

“People are blindsided. They’re trying to cut across four lanes of traffic to make a left,” she said. “It’s the fact that we have more cars on the road. If you look 10 years ago, it might not have been such a dangerous intersection.”

Among the options that the Chapel Hill Town Council discussed was adding a median on Estes Drive.

The permit application from Walgreens states that the business would pay for a median, as well as changes to the entrance driveways and other features to make the area more pedestrian-friendly.

The property owner of Caribou Coffee, which has entrances on both sides of the intersection, sent the town a letter expressing concerns that the proposed median would discourage turns into the parking lot.

Diane McArthur, a Caribou Coffee customer, called the proposed median a terrible idea.

“I do think it’s wrong to hurt the business of an established business in order to help a new business,” she said.

Jessica Page, a Caribou Coffee employee, said the biggest problem is the need for pedestrian safety.

“People are really rude, and you can never cross,” Page said. “People go way too fast.”

Page said customers complain because they have to park across the street from Caribou and they can’t cross the street.

“I’ll park where I’m not supposed to just because it’s so hard to cross,” Page said.

The median would act as a resting place for pedestrians if they couldn’t cross in time, Rich said. The medians would help regulate the flow of traffic by eliminating the opportunity to turn at businesses along that stretch.

Rich said they must take into account the added traffic a Walgreens would bring and must keep the turns directly into the parking lot.

“There will be more cars going into Walgreens than into the BP,” she said. “It makes a bad intersection worse.”

Rich said that regardless of whether a Walgreens moves into the location, the town needs to look at making the intersection safer.

“It’s a constant balancing act between growth and cars,” Rich said.



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