The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted this past Tuesday, at its last meeting before their break, to delay any appointments to the Carrboro Greenways Commission. The BOA wants to hear from staff over the summer as to what tasks the Commission will be charged with in the next 12 to 18 months. The aim, reportedly, is to select representatives to the Commission who will be able to address these tasks. Friends of Bolin Creek had requested new members be appointed to the Commission in this letter.
Save Bolin Creek has tracked and attended Carrboro Greenways Commission meetings over the past year and a half. Much could have been accomplished if the Commission had representatives willing to hear all opinions. We’ve had a few members willing to listen, but members pushing for a single solution of paving along Bolin Creek have dominated the Commission and discouraged thoughtful dialogue and civility. When the public brought new information such as the Campus to campus connector and the perils of putting pavement near stream banks, our input has been ignored. Even with the Mayor participating in the Commission discussions, alternative viewpoints were devalued, in contrast to Carrboro’s posted rules for public conduct. Until March of 2011 the Commission did not even have a protocol for hearing public opinion, a problem which has now been addressed by allowing public comments at the beginning of each meeting.
Key to any community discussion, in our opinion, is the inclusion of citizens who represent the overwhelming sentiment expressed in this town for conserving the ecology, habitat and water quality of Bolin Creek. Indeed, rare is the 425-acre forest that defines this area. Its conservation, as you know, is the most important project that Friends of Bolin Creek has undertaken and one that the Town has supported in part by the purchase of the Adams Tract in 2004. The area has been cited by a 2004 North Carolina study as a priority for preservation.
Save Bolin Creek has embraced the need for connectivity for bicyclists and walkers in our community. We have studied Carrboro, Chapel Hill and UNC’s plans and find that these plans go a long way toward meeting our connectivity needs. This map illustrates that point powerfully in visual terms. The bottom line is that the greenways experience should not be exclusively a paved path over built to DOT standards. Even more important is the value of saving our natural places for the future.
Meanwhile Save Bolin Creek has gathered 1100 signatures on a petition asking the Commission and Board of Aldermen to keep the creek natural. So far, these strong sentiments for this specific public policy have been rejected by the Commission and not discussed by the Board of Aldermen. We want the Board of Aldermen to redress the imbalance on the Commission, choose new members for this key Advisory Commission, and embrace a vision for the Town that protects our natural resources, namely Bolin Forest and the creek that runs through it.
Your support and encouragement this past year have been important to our morale and specifically from preventing a Commission endorsement of a paved path next to Bolin Creek. We need your continued support as our elected leaders engage on these important issues.
Contributor
Michael Birenbach
mary sonis
rcrook
Linda Haac
This is an excellent recap of the tone of the last 18 months. I happen to live next to the creek and am a lifelong nature lover. Nature hikes are an important part of my daily life, and have been for decades. Our quality of life as a community will be high if we preserve what we have — something no one can manufacture or create. Preservation in perpetuity is what expresses our values of respect for nature, not paving a forest.
I keep wondering why some Alderman and Greenways Commission members are so adamant about paving the woods — especially when 100% of the other greenways in Carrboro are slated to be paved, and there are alternative routes, besides next to the creek bank, that make more sense. Who could it benefit? I hope that some journalist ask Mayor Chilton and others why they want the paving so much, as it’s a mystery to me in view of what is right for our creek and wildlife health and quality of life for citizens.