- Target:
- Carrboro Town Council
- Region:
- United States of America
, Background:
February 2024 Update to Our Petition
The Carrboro Council voted to move forward with the creekside route in October. It is not too late to take action! A Town-commissioned technical report identified numerous legal and environmental problems with this route, but the Town staff did not share it with the council before they voted. The Carrboro Town Council has forwarded all the current bikepath projects to the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) where this project may or may not be funded. Your signature and support for this petition is still valued and important. See https://bolincreek.org/blog/take-action/
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- Carrboro Town Council is once again considering the divisive and controversial construction of a 10 foot wide concrete bikeway from Estes Drive to Homestead Road along Bolin Creek despite deciding in 2009 to pause this greenway project due to extensive costs and minimal public support. The proposed plan is to construct a concrete road that would be 10 feet wide with a required buffer of 10 feet on either side. This amounts to a 30 foot wide clearing and destruction to the forest floor in a riparian buffer zone..
- The Council is revisiting the original 2009 plan, now called Bolin Creek Trail Phases 3 & 4 - an estimated five-to-ten year project requiring extensive grading, blasting, clearing and cutting through the heart of a large portion of Horace William’s forest he gifted to UNC. If this proposal is again defeated, the forest can remain a 429-acre sanctuary for endangered species and migratory birds, hikers, nature lovers and mountain bikers.
- This is not a clump of trees to be traversed by commuters, but if conserved a symbol of our community's steadfast dedication to environmental preservation.
What are the risks?
- This concrete structure would remove many trees, increase pollution of Bolin Creek, already listed by the EPA as an impaired waterway, and would intensify flooding for neighbors living downstream. Additionally, it would violate Jordan Lake rules that allow multi-use paths within riparian zones ONLY if no practical alternatives exist.
- If the environmental reasons weren’t enough, the cost of this project is unknown. So far there has been no information or discussion of the price that taxpayers, homeowners and HOAs will pay for this project such as blasting through an ancient volcano and the potential long-term maintenance costs that could be passed directly to all taxpayers by way of increased property taxes, HOA fees and higher rent payments.
What are the alternatives?
- UNC had planned a bikeway connecting Estes Drive to Homestead Road via Seawell School Road that will be much less environmentally destructive, less costly for Carrboro taxpayers, and doesn’t cut through the middle of the forest. This project could be funded with Federal dollars at a fraction of the cost of the creekside route. Additionally, when UNC shuts down its coal plant, repurposing the rail tracks to a bikeway presents another alternate route.
Time is short – please take a stand (Public engagement ends October 17,2023)
Sign below: Urge the Carrboro Town Council to conserve, not pave the Bolin Creek trail. Keep Bolin Wild!!!
We, the undersigned:
- Request the Town Council of Carrboro protect and preserve our forest and fight climate change by providing a natural undisturbed habitat for a diverse, healthy ecosystem for all humans, animals and plants;
- Oppose implementation of a ten-foot wide, concrete transportation route from Estes Drive to Homestead Road along Bolin Creek Phases 3 and 4;
- Support alternative route outside the riparian zone such as the off-road bikeway along Seawell Road.
"Keep Bolin Wild"
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Keep Bolin Wild - Do Not Pave the Bolin Creek Trail petition to Carrboro Town Council was written by Carrboro Citizen and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.