Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 19:48:56 -0500
From: Pittsboro Matters
Subject: Five Fictions about Chatham Park and Traffic
In the most recent chatlist we addressed five of Samatha Capital’s fictions about Chatham Park Investors’ current master plan proposal. Below we address with facts four more fictions that relate to traffic.
Let us be clear, Pittsboro Matters is not against a reasonable sized sustainable, smart growth master planned community. Unfortunately, the current master plan is not anywhere near that. Moreover, it clearly fails
to spell out sufficient land use design details for anyone to have a clear idea whether this 55,000 resident development will either destroy or enhance Pittsboro’s small character and quality of life. Not to speak of
it’s thriving local culture, business economy and affordable living.
It is curious that now that we’re on the cusp of bringing in an expert planning consulting team to assess our current process and the proposed master plan, Samantha Capital continues to post fact-free fanciful and, at times trivial, alleged benefits of proposed Chatham Park. Is Ms. Capital afraid that when traffic, environmental, fiscal, and social-economic impact analysis are completed and peer reviewed, that these studies will not
support most of her claimed benefits? That they will instead call for substantial changes to the Planned Development District Ordinance (PDD) and master plan in order make it truly a environmentally, economically and
socially “sustainable community?”
Fiction 14 – The project is located on the east side of Town which is away from the traffic problems and patterns of downtown. The location will preserve the small town feel.
Fact – The only way anyone can make this assertion is after a traffic impact analysis has been completed, something Chatham Park Investors made sure was “prohibited” in the PDD. According to the Federal Highway Administration, the average household makes 9.6 vehicular trips a day. With 27,970 household residences planned for Chatham Park, that comes to an additional 268,000 vehicular trips a day. Even if transit reduced this in half, this would still mean an incredibly heavy local traffic burden.
Did you know that the bypass expressway planned to run through Pittsboro near the Christian Village just east of Town is a four-lane highway whose right-of-way will be built to accommodate six lanes? Did you know that one of the three planned access connections along with bypass will connect the major research and development job center and its surrounding dense commercial/residential areas to the current 25 MPH narrow two-lane Thompson Street just east of Fire Tower Road? This access location would require substantial widening of that road, since it would be the principle access road to downtown Pittsboro. Unless Chatham Park plans to create their own downtown and allow our current downtown to die, this massive development will create enormous traffic problems for downtown Pittsboro.
From 55,000 to 70,000 more people and at least 268,000 more car trips a day. Are you kidding about keeping a small town feel? By the way, you are referring to the Eastern portion of the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) of Pittsboro. Is it entirely a coincidence that no one living in that part of town has a vote?
Fiction 23 – An interchange on Hwy 64 that will be decorative and in keeping with the style of Pittsboro.
Fact – Is this a joke? Are you talking about the lovely landscaped decorative north entrance to town where we get to enjoy the beautifully unique and “old town” Kentucky Fried Chicken/Taco Bell and Lowes buildings and their street lights and massive parking lot?
Let us add another likely fact of the design on vehicle traffic. Like Reston and Columbia, the design for this development includes three lower-density residential villages with commercial centers spread out to the southeast toward Jordan Lake and Moncure. Experience in Reston and Columbia has demonstrated that this spread out village concept does not make transit economically feasible, resulting in communities that are almost completely automobile dependent.
In their 2012 promotional video, Chatham Park Investors promised that residents would not have to walk more than two or three blocks to work. Their current design appears to preclude that. It will also create a huge stuck-in-traffic problem when those living in these residential villages, working at either the proposed R&D or hospital areas, all have to enter the same access point onto the 15/501 expressway bypass along with those
commuting to Chapel Hill.
Fiction 22 – Eventually a new by-pass around town to relieve future traffic from the west thru the down town district.
Fact – This will have zero effect in reducing the stuck-in-traffic caused by Chatham Park. Moreover, it we will be lucky if this is built in less than 30 years given the ever decreasing state transportation funding.
Fiction 18 – The shopping centers will be state of the art.
Fact – South Point is an example of the current state-of-the-art mall with its “fake” downtown. Is that what you are recommending Chatham Park bring us to eliminate traffic in our current downtown? So, you wish to follow towns across North Carolina who built shopping malls at the edge of their towns and destroyed their historic downtowns? Moreover, when was the last time you tried to find a parking space at South Point?
More importantly, when both Reston and Columbia new towns were having financial problems, their original wealthy developers were pushed out by international corporations who sought immediate cash infusions through building highend shopping malls and commercial centers on the edge of their developments. While some will say it is a good thing that both new towns became major regional shopping and job centers, most residents were much more concerned about the negative quality of life, environmental and traffic impacts of the massive sprawl development that sprung up around them. Beyond massive traffic jams, Reston, for example, is the most expensive place to live in the already expensive Washington D.C. area. Average home prices are around $450,000. Most Pittsboro area residents would be shocked at the property taxes.
Sadly, this “utopia” for some well-heeled mall shoppers will more likely be a “dystopia” for struggling middle class and working families who came to Pittsboro because of its small town character and affordable living.