Agenda - 10-15-2002 - 5e - Laserfiche WebLink

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printer-friendly story wysiwyg://17/http://newsobserver.com/ne...le/v-print/story/1794146p-1799351c.htm move. �CE "If you move [the station] off the property, it's going to move onto someone else's property,"he said. "It definitely complicates things." The communities have been working closely on the transit link, and Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said he hopes Durham leaders protect the corridor. "I think all of us in the region have an obligation to stick to the commitments we're making in regard to public transportation so the transportation infrastructure can get built." Last November,the Durham City Council approved a resolution to preserve the corridor for future transit use. Singe then,the council has persuaded other developers to take the corridor into consideration.Wesley Parham, a Durham senior transportation planner, said examples of that include rezoning requests for a townhouse project on Pickett Road and for an office site near Erwin Road and with a mixed-use development called Patterson Place, just southwest of the empty mall. But nothing in state law requires property owners to protect the corridor. In fact, the October public hearing isn't even required, said Karen Sindelar,the city attorney who handles transportation and planning issues. Although state law preserves right-of-way for highways once the proposed roads are etched into long-range plans, no statutes govern transit corridors, Sindelar said. She said local jurisdictions have to help landowners understand that;they can develop their property without'jeopardizing the corridor. "It doesn't mean that people cannot develop their property, and it doesn't mean that people have to give that land to the transit corridor,"she said. "However, it's often useful to make it easier for government to acquire it. [The corridor] doesn't act as an impediment for everybody." And in the end, she said, local governments do have the power of eminent domain. Design also an issue Some transit supporters are more worried about Faison's big-box design than his desire to shift the corridor. The swaths of asphalt that accompany strip shopping centers repel the pedestrians likely to use transit, said John Hodges-Copple, regional planning director of the Triangle J Council of Governments, an agency that helps local governments on planning issues. A transit study predicts that 9,000 to 16,000 people a day will ride the Durham-Chapel Hill line. If only a few people use the South Square station, Hodges-Copple said, "it could make the transit line ineffective." Whatever the Durham City Council decides about moving the South Square corridor, the council has less control over how Faison develops his property. Because Faison's land is already zoned for use as a shopping center, he needs only site plan approval from the council. As long as the plan meets regulations on such things as setbacks and parking, the city has little choice but to go along, said Dick Hails, Durham's assistant director of city-county planning. South Square is not the first snag along the corridor. In southwest Durham County, school leaders want to build an elementary school next to the corridor.And planners worry that the area will become dotted with houses on large lots, a style of development that would not be dense enough to draw many transit riders. Watching from the wings are other TTA board members and leaders in Chapel Hill and Orange County who depend on Durham to preserve the corridor. "From a TTA perspective, that's an important location,"said Chapel Hill Town Council member Bill Strom, also a TTA trustee. "It'd be a shame if the options and the locations that would make the Durham-Chapel Hill line a success evaporated." 2 of 3 10/8/2002 12:09 PM