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Carolina North Panel Tackles Transportation: Plans for a Study of the Proposed Campus's Needs Divide Towns, University

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 18:00 CDT

By Matt Dees, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 2--CHAPEL HILL -- The Carolina North Leadership Advisory Committee finally got down to business Thursday with a frank discussion about perhaps the most critical issue dividing town and university leaders: transportation.

It was a step forward for the group, which had been bogged down in procedural questions during its first three sessions.

The rush to substance was in no small part compelled by the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees, which last week called for plans for the proposed research campus to be submitted for approval by October 2007.

Town and gown agreed they wanted Carolina North to be served as much as possible by public transit -- a bus and/or rail system -- and bicycle and pedestrian access.

That means both paying for a new and improved transit system connecting Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Carolina North and the main campus, and limiting access to single-occupancy vehicles.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro officials worry about congestion and pollution with a concept plan calling for 17,000 parking spaces at Carolina North once it's complete.

The sticking point is a proposed study looking at the area's transportation needs.

The towns want a "transit study" looking only at how to improve the public transit system. The university wants a full-blown "transportation study" that also will look at possibly widening roads.

This disagreement got a thorough airing Thursday.

Tony Waldrop, UNC-CH's vice chancellor for research and economic development, said he didn't want to "artificially cut out" any part of the picture.

"We would want a mass-transit-focused [Carolina North]," he said. "But if it's not possible in the short term, medium term, or long term, what do we need to do? For me, I need to have all the facts in front of me before I settle in on any one thing."

Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman, though, said there already is a state-recognized body that studies roads called the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization. It has a long-range transportation plan to 2030 that takes Carolina North into account.

"We've got a roads plan," Coleman said. "We don't have a transit plan. We should have both."

Carolyn Elfland, vice chancellor for campus services, noted that only 30 percent of UNC-CH employees live within the local transit system. The study must look at roadways along with transit, she said.

"Transit is the top priority," Elfland said. "But it doesn't stop with just transit."

Chapel Hill Town Manager Cal Horton suggested that the towns and university jointly fund a transit study, and that UNC-CH could pay for its own roadway report.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and others fear that road widening will win out over transit if they're studied together.

He put it this way:

"After we add two travel lanes to MLK Boulevard, what kind of transit system would we need?"

Versus ...

"If we improve our public transit system, will we ever need two more lanes on MLK?"

The group agreed to meet July 6 after initially canceling the meeting for that month.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News & Observer

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