By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL — The Town Council has yet to settle on a final priority list for its update to a 2008 master list for sidewalk construction, but members already know there’s at least one tough choice ahead.
Residents on both sides of the debate over a proposed sidewalk on Graham Street in the Northside neighborhood showed up at the council’s Monday night meeting at Town Hall to plead their case.
Longtime resident Joseph Fearrington was joined by neighbor Delores Bailey in calling for the town to drop plans for a sidewalk on the east side of North Graham Street. But North Graham Street resident Steve Wright said the road needs a sidewalk, especially since the neighborhood will see more pedestrian traffic after the new elementary school on Caldwell Street opens.
Residents of the Bennett Road/Mt. Carmel Church Road community also asked the council to speed up their project, as did residents of Colony Woods eager to complete a link along Ephesus Church Road.
Council member Ed Harrison agreed that the eastside neighborhoods that are in the Durham County portion of Chapel Hill are long overdue for new sidewalks, since they have gone 40 years without the town constructing a sidewalk in the area. “It’s about time,†he said.
The council will take up the sidewalk plan again at its Nov. 22 meeting.
In other action Monday night, the council reviewed an extensive rewrite of its rules on tree protection, including new requirements for maintaining tree canopies and a tighter definition of what constitutes a significant stand of hardwoods.
The tree-canopy rules, proposed by the town’s planning board, would apply mainly to larger-scale developments. It sets standards for the percentage of the canopy that must be maintained for various size lots and would not apply to single-family homes unless plans call for disturbing more than 5,000 square feet of land.
Architect and developer Phil Post said he did not think the new rules were workable and may have the unintended consequence of forcing builders to eliminate open space or ponds.
He also took exception with defining the canopy as starting at 20 feet above the ground, since it would not apply to favored species like crape myrtle.
The current system is not broken and doesn’t need to be fixed, Post said.
Planning board member Del Snow argued in favor of the changes, saying that canopy standards have become a best practice in tree protection across the country and should be adopted.
Council member Jim Ward said he’d like to see additional protection rules drafted specifically for the “oak alleys†downtown.
In other action Monday night, the council:
• established a new pet license fee for cats, which will cost $3 for sterilized cats or $5 for unsterilized cats. The fee is expected to generate about $5,110, which will cover cost increases in animal control; and
• voted 5-3 on the first reading to adopt new bicycle and vehicular parking rules that mandate at least one bicycle parking space for every two housing units in new multi-family developments and reduce the number of vehicular spaces required for large projects. A second-reading vote on the ordinance change is pending.