In December 2009, Carrboro’s Board of Aldermen considered a plan put forward by the consultant firm Greenways Inc., contained in a draft “Bolin Creek Greenway”. The draft plan included a number of transit bike links or “greenways” which the Board of Aldermen adopted. These “greenways” established needed bicycle connections and substituted in some cases for dangerous sections of bike shoulders along roadways. The one section that brought strong community objections was the greenway proposed for 2 1/2 mile Bolin Creek which the Board did not adopt. Presently there is no approved Bolin Creek Greenway Plan and the Aldermen have not said when they will consider the options. The December action is here.
The proposal of concern is a paved 10-foot wide concrete bike route with 10 feet of graded surface material on either side, amounting to a 30 foot cleared area along Bolin Creek between Estes Drive and Homestead Road. Steep rocky slopes hold challenges for this particular narrow valley, unlike other parts of Morgan Creek and Bolin Creek in Chapel Hill which meander through relatively flat terrain. There are additional challenges of building a greenway next to the creek described here. While under state rules, greenways are an allowable use, paved greenways are only allowed if there is no practical alternative. That alternative route is far more direct and will be built when the University for the new Carolina North campus is built on Seawell School Road, as shown in this map.
Contributor
Michael Birenbach
mary sonis
rcrook
Linda Haac
Early one morning last week while walking on Bolin Creek, my walking partner and I were thrilled to watch a Pileated Woodpecker as it climbed a tree, and then flew over our heads revealing its huge wingspan and white striped under wings. The rest of the day, and week, I returned to that memory and the joy and thrill of that moment returned. But I wonder what would happen to those huge old trees, right next to the dirt trail we were on, if bulldozers come to make room for 10 feet of concrete and 2-4 feet on either side of that? What would happen to the Pileated Woodpeckers which have been able to return to our NC woods after becoming so rare just a few years ago?