Hillsborough assays Churton St. proposal

Historic downtown Hillsborough soon will get a face-lift, but interested parties want to ensure the look is one everyone can live with.

Monday night, the Hillsborough Town Board received an update on the Gateway Center project, slated to house a new restaurant and several business offices and apartments off Churton Street.

The development’s main hangup is the current outline of downtown Hillsborough, which might make it difficult to reach the retail and rental center.

Both N&K Street and Exchange Park Lane would cause problems for commuters trying to access the proposed development because the roads were never properly developed, said Brian Ketchem, a civil engineering manager with Summit Consulting Engineers who has been hired to redesign area traffic flow for the project.

Area residents echoed Ketchem’s concerns at the meeting, stressing that the original plan eliminated left-turn access to and from Churton Street from the other roads.

Ketchem said the board now wants to combine the two roads to access Churton Street at one point.

“I know a lot of people don’t go (to shops on the roads) because they can’t get out,” said Leon Lee, who owns and operates Riverside Restaurant & Catering at 162 Exchange Park Lane. “Basically, it would be disastrous for that side of town if we shut it off.”

Lee and Walter Faribault Jr., who own the property Riverside is built on, are worried that business would decline because no one would be able to access the area for short trips. They also are concerned that trucks would have difficulty turning around and exiting.

“What is happening here is you are potentially satisfying one client and potentially hurting another, and in my view that’s not right,” Faribault said.

Other locals are concerned about the potentially dangerous mix of pedestrians and vehicles the complex might create.

“It’s 20 miles per hour, and you almost have to get clipped a couple of times to want to do the speed limit,” said Lauren McGlynn, who lives in the area.

To realize the Gateway project, Hillsborough’s redesign committee will have to accentuate the area’s small-town qualities.

“It’ll change the view as you come into town,” Planning Director Margaret Hauth said of the proposed changes.

Residents’ suggestions have included putting parking lots behind new developments and erecting street signs to direct drivers toward businesses off the town’s main thoroughfare, Hauth said.

“That’s going to get more woven into our development guidelines,” she said of suggestions.

Business owners can apply for façade grants to erect some of the signs, Hauth said, but there’s still no clear source of funding for more expensive suggestions, including placing power lines underground.

The town is unable to pay for more expensive improvements and could not place the burden on the property owners, she said.

The re-worked plans will be up for board approval May 9.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.