On July 6th, 1999, the Westwood neighborhood presented a petition signed by residents in the Mason Farm/Whitehead Circle/Westwood/Westside neighborhoods stating their opposition to mass transit corridors built through established town neighborhoods. On July 7, 1999, the town council voted unanimously in support of “a resolution opposing mass transit routes and technology that would have serious adverse impact on any Chapel Hill neighborhoods.” This statement said that mass transit routes would not run through established Chapel Hill neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods gathered additional signatures and again addressed the issue in context with the University’s Master Plan. On August 20, 2000, we delivered the final petition copies with signatures of 200 residents.
Though Mayor Waldorf then assured neighborhoods there would be “nothing to worry about” regarding the town’s future plans for mass transit corridors, the location of proposed corridors continues to cause concern. The town’s 2025 Transportation Alternatives plan designates two possible mass transit corridors, one running through Carrboro, with the other route ending at the intersection of Mason Farm Road and S. Columbia Street.
Neighborhoods have concern for where corridors should be, as much as for where they should not be. For instance, our neighborhoods have always supported designating Manning Drive as the first option for a mass transit corridor. It serves the most dense part of the UNC campus, including the hospitals. With this, the town could minimize impacts on neighborhoods while making mass transit very accessible to UNC staff, students, and town residents.
UNC has never supported this as an option, because it does not square with their long-term goal of de-emphasizing Manning Drive as a route into campus and to the hospitals. Currently, UNC plans a major new southern entrance into campus and the hospitals that will run near Mason Farm Road, and UNC is pursuing its vision for a multi-lane widening of South Columbia Street.
Please understand how the University’s refusal to consider Manning Drive as a potential transit corridor relates to their long-term plan to offload the lion’s share of traffic through neighborhoods on its south side. The University seeks to limit vehicle trips on Manning while shifting transit burdens to the south. Out of their sight, out of their minds, and squarely into our neighborhoods and lives. Certainly this is not an equitable balance. The University must be asked to continue to carry – on Manning Drive – a reasonable share of the traffic headed into South Campus, and to allow Manning to be considered by the town as a mass transit corridor.
Designating Manning as the mass transit corridor would accomplish a number of things, including:
Our neighborhoods, therefore, request that the council and town reexamine Manning Drive as a possible mass transit corridor. Last year UNC was given approval for a Master Plan that asked for scant compromise to their vision of massive build-out on the south side. It is sensible and forward thinking that we ask the University to put Manning on the table as a mass transit corridor so the town can appropriately design its mass transit options.
If Manning cannot be considered as an option, however, and there is to be a mass transit corridor ending at the intersection of Mason Farm Road and S. Columbia Street, our neighborhoods request that the corridor continue in a manner that limits destruction to the community, while still serving as a viable link in the regional transit network.
Assuming that the town of Chapel Hill uses buses to connect between any fixed guide way systems and the Horace Williams tract, the Greater Westwood Neighborhood Association and Westside Neighborhood Associations support a mass transit corridor that runs north, on Columbia Street, then up Airport Road to connect to the Horace Williams tract.
Our neighborhoods have one final request with regard to this issue. Please keep us informed about your decision-making process, and apprised of any opportunities to attend meetings where these issues are discussed.