On Wednesday, July 29th, The Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously to fund the construction contract to build Elliott Road Extension for 6.5 million dollars. CHALT has opposed the road from the time it was proposed in 2014. At this meeting we presented again to the Council our reasons why the town should not pay for an expensive road project through a flood plain with so little benefit for the taxpayer. The road extends Elliott Road across 15-501 through a low lying area and joins Ephesus Fordham Road with a planned round about. The entire price tag is $6,047,442.
CHALT opposed this road extension because it’s expensive to build a road in a flood plain and while the engineering studies showed the culverts could handle flood events, the specs for a 25 year flood don’t consider climate change. Second, the road extension benefits the Park Apartments property owner (those affordable apartments were torn down to make way for more luxury apartments), and the Town of Chapel Hill, not the developer, will pay the 6.5 million cost with borrowed money.The only benefit traffic wise is a small reduction in west bound left turns from Ephesus onto 15-501. Negotiations for this deal were privately conducted and the public has not seen the contract that the Town signed with the benefiting property owner. IN summary a bad deal for the town and the environment.
The original goal of the “Blue Hill” District was for the Town budget to increase town revenues more than costs, yet to date, it is losing money because it has failed to meet a fraction of projected office and retail development goals — and the cost of services for residential units exceeds the cost of predicted property taxes.
We are condemned to repeat our mistakes if we don’t understand them. We ask that the Mayor and Town Council conduct a new benefit-cost analysis for the district. We believe the district is failing its initial objective — to produce a net increase in Town revenue.
Finally, our largest objection is the approval of borrowing up to $6,047,442 (revised RFP amount) to construct a road that was first envisioned to cost $2.6 million that brings no demonstrable value to our Town. There are other Town responsibilities that are far more important recipients of those millions, e.g., affordable housing.
Here is the full letter we sent the Council.
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