Town Council OKs new name for road

Dec. 7 — The emotion that characterized an 11-month saga about renaming Airport Road in honor of a civil rights leader spilled into the topic’s final chapter.

The Chapel Hill Town Council received a standing ovation from members of the community when it voted unanimously in favor of changing the name of Airport Road to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

“Dr. King fought just for this,” said Brenda Brown, an at-large member of the Special Committee to Consider Renaming Airport Road.

The committee’s recommendation of the name change by a 15-3 vote helped drive the council to approve the renaming.

Brown wept with joy after the council approved the committee’s proposal, which calls for the road to be renamed by July 4, 2005.

That recommendation also calls for the placement of separate street signs with the designation “Historic Airport Road” along the road.

But some people were not as pleased as Brown.

Catherine Holland, who served on the committee and owns a business on Airport Road, expressed frustration with the committee’s final recommendation, which evolved during three November meetings. “To (committee members in favor of the renaming), Airport Road seems like the only solution,” she said.

Before voting on the proposal, council members heard a presentation from two of the facilitators hired by the town to ensure that the committee’s meetings stayed focused.

The presentation highlighted the committee’s final report, which discusses the group’s 10 total recommendations and its decision-making process.

Council members then heard comments from community members on both sides of the issue.

“It would be nice if we could just wave a magic wand and everybody would be happy about this,” said Billy Madden, who lives near Airport Road and was opposed to the change.

After the vote, facilitator Calvin Allen said he knew some people would not be happy with the decision. “It’s hard that there are still some questions out there,” he said.

One of those questions relates to a concern that the committee was “hand-picked” by the council in order to achieve a certain outcome.

“I can’t help but think that the committee was stacked,” said Bruce Johnson, an Airport Road business owner and one of the three committee members who voted against recommending the name change.

Holland expressed similar displeasure. “I am very disappointed and discouraged by the actions of the members of this council,” she said.

In a pre-meeting press conference, Mayor Kevin Foy said the council picked people who wanted to engage in discussion.

“We didn’t need to stack the committee,” he said. “We didn’t have to have the committee at all.”

At Monday night’s meeting, Foy requested that Town Manager Cal Horton review the committee’s nine other recommendations, including the promotion of further discussions on race relations.

Council members will likely hear those proposals in January.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.