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Planning Group Seeks Input on Transit Corridor

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 11--DURHAM -- A regional planning group wants to hear from elected officials and the Triangle Transit Authority before settling on a way to reroute a transit corridor that will pass near Creekside Elementary School.

The decision to seek comment from the City Council, the County Commissioners and elected boards in Orange County came Wednesday morning during a meeting of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Transportation Advisory Committee.

Durham County officials left little doubt that they want the corridor moved to protect the Creekside property. Administrators have suggested a routing that would hug the west side of Interstate 40 before turning toward Chapel Hill.

"I want you all to remember we have a major investment out there in the school site," County Commissioner Becky Heron told her fellow delegates on the advisory panel. "To infringe on that school site is not going to happen if we have anything to do with it because we are also planning a middle school on this site in addition to the elementary school. We are going to protect the school site."

But advocates are trying to map out the corridor now, even though it might be 20 years before the transit authority builds its link from Durham to Chapel Hill. With a map of the corridor in hand, officials could bar developers from putting structures on it and therefore avoid having to buy or condemn buildings at premium prices later on.

Chapel Hill Town Councilman Bill Strom, a member of the Triangle Transit Authority's board of directors who represents the agency on the Transportation Advisory Committee, asked for a delay on the decision. He said the transit authority needs more time to figure out how changing the route would affect the cost and ridership of its planned bus or rail from Durham to Chapel Hill.

Noting that cost issues have delayed the opening of a transit authority rail link from Raleigh to Durham, Strom said officials should avoid making a premature decision that would hurt the agency's next big project.

"I would hate to have the tail wag the dog and handicap what we'd actually be able to produce," he said.

As originally mapped, the transit corridor passed through the Creekside property. Over the last few months, officials have been scrutinizing eight alternatives. All but three would cross or border the school property.

As it happens, those three also would avoid a 39.4-acre tract at the corner of Farrington and Ephesus Church roads that a developer, Beazer Homes USA, has proposed making the site of a 223-unit townhouse project.

The option that hugs I-40 is one of the three that avoids the school site entirely.

The Beazer plan doesn't reserve any land for the transit corridor. Beazer engineer Michael Sandusky has conceded that his client probably couldn't build the project if it had to set aside any land.

Heron alluded to the project during Wednesday debate when she noted that the prospect of having two schools nearby has made the Farrington Road area "hot property."

"I urge you not to sit back on this because land-use decisions have already been made," she said. If local officials take too long to make up their minds, more private-sector developers may beat them to the land, she said.

Administrators have said of the eight options, routing beside I-40 has the best chance of attracting riders. But it also is the most expensive of the options, and could add 5 percent to the eventual cost of a transit line built there. In dollars, estimates suggest it may add $12 million to $29 million to the transit authority's bill.

The Transportation Advisory Committee plans to gather comments from local governments and debate the matter again on Sept. 14.

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Source: The Herald-Sun

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