The Chapel Hill Town Council held a special meeting for the Obey Creek site project on Friday.
John Rees, a Chapel Hill resident, said he wanted the council to focus on the dynamics of the bridge between Southern Village and Obey Creek.
Rees said a 10 foot width would allow for a more comfortable walking and biking experience.
“This is the ten foot bridge and you can see with the fences on both sides that it still looks kind of narrow,” he said. “Just imagine what it would look like if it was four feet wide. People would probably be afraid to walk across it.”
During the meeting the planning team was able to announce a current plan to have the Obey Creek bridge be built to a 12 foot width.
Victor Dover, a lead on planning the Obey Creek site, presented the revised designs of the site project. Dover said one of the main focuses was to view the Southern Village and Obey Creek sites not as two separate projects but as one.
“To realize that it’s more than just a stand-alone interesting part of town it’s a destination,” he said. “That comes all the more important as we look ahead to the strong prospect for bus traffic transit.”
Dover recapped a new emphasis on making the site both aesthetically appealing and user friendly.
“If we fail to make this meaningful for pedestrians and cyclists then it all fails,” Dover said. “That is the one baseline thing. We can be flexible about a lot of things but we can’t be flexible about that.”
Dover said the council should begin to look at U.S. Highway 15-501 not as a rural highway but in a grander road view. He proposed the highway speed to be reduced and even mentioned the possibility of adding a roundabout.
Councilman Jim Ward said he wanted to learn more about the current Obey Creek footprint that established 50 percent of buildings to be four to eight stories tall.
“The building height to me is most impactful when I am a pedestrian and I feel like I am in a canyon,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like the buildings are too tall relative to their separation from one another.”
The council will revisit the Obey Creek development plans on Feb. 12.
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