I can see that as a BRT and having routes from DTR to Zebulon. DTR to RDU…DTR to WF…etc…etc.
There is a big hubub about some property owners on New Bern being assessed for curb and gutter additions to their street, and they are not happy. A number of them came out to the town hall councilman Branch put on about the BRT. That project is going to apply for a smart start grant in September with plans that include how they will make the BRT accessible to lots of people (will need more housing near it), so I am guessing there are plenty of blockers waiting around there. We could be seeing similar headlines in September about how the Smart Start application was stopped by something and now instead of 2023 we will have to try again next year for get it started by 2024.
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NIMBYS
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But this is all within the city’s right-of-way, correct? I’m not aware of any plans for land acquisition but I’m not that close to those kind of details.
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It seems like it is, but people were really confused at the meeting. Going to be a number of times where someone feels like 40% of their front yard gets “taken”. Combined with needing to pay for the changes for curb and gutter miffed a bunch of people. Those are the people who live on New Bern and having them already upset before actual BRT (new stuff do dislike) happens scares me. They were asking Councilman Branch to have the city pay for it. Might be worth it, but he said he needed to find other councilors to care. I think it will add up to $100,000 to $200,000. Reflecting on the outcome with D-CH light rail, I am worried that we wont get all our ducks lined up for the funding request in September. That is 7 months away and I think we have lots of stuff to figure out by then. If everything we need to do and potential blockers doesn’t seem clear with 7 months to go, that in itself if kind of scary.
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So are you saying that the city wants these residents to pony up to have curbing and guttering put in? I’m naive to how this works, but they already pay city taxes and most everybody else already had curbing and guttering.
If there’s ANYTHING you could learn from the Durham light rail clusterfu(are we allowed to curse here?), it’s this. GoRaleigh needs to put this in huge, bold letters on their slides, if they want any shot at getting residents onboard, since this is what matters above all.
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So I recently went to a meeting run by Stef Mendell that explained the process for getting a sidewalk constructed on your street.
Any sidewalk installed by the city must include curb & gutter that already exists. If curb & gutter does not currently exist, the city will need to install that first and that cost will be assessed to the residents who live adjacent to the “improvements”. After that, the sidewalk costs are paid for by the city.
So it sounds like the city wants to assess the New Bern residents for the curb & gutter improvements since there are tons of places along New Bern Ave that do not have curb & gutter that would be a requirement for future sidewalks. Hopefully, the city realizes that sidewalk connectivity is crucial for BRT’s success in that corridor and just ponies up the cash to make the improvements.
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That is a good description. I would add that you should probably reach out to your city councilor and ask for said ponying up.
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Sometimes curb and gutter for city initiated projects is paid for by the city. When it is a state project, the DOT always pays. Really this is at the discretion of the council. They are likely worried about the “precedent” here where other property owners on other streets would now have leverage to demand the city pay for it. But in this case, he city can certainly afford to pay for this curb and gutter more than they can afford for this petty issue to get BRT off on the wrong foot. Just pay for it for goodness sakes.
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What am I missing here? Why wouldn’t the city just roll the sidewalk project right into the BRT project. Why force people to pay for sidewalk upgrades now and then possibly have to tear them out in a year or two when you do the construction for the BRT. Doesn’t make sense.
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Pulling out the BRT talk in the Light Rail thread. Carry on.
I’m not 100% up on the conversation but much of the confusion about the sidewalks (from the Dix Master Plan approval council meeting) was that where the sidewalks are going are “far” away from the current street. People think they’re having their yards taken away but this appears to be existing city right of way. Once the road is expanded for BRT the sidewalks will be right along the road. Also I thought someone said the sidewalks had to be put in first before the BRT but I’m going purely off memory and that’s a dangerous thing.
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Thanks for the explanation. But still does not make sense to me why they wouldn’t just do it at the same time. Suck up the cost into the BRT project and don’t force residents to pay for it. There will already be crews out there working on the BRT, just add the sidewalks to their scope of work. Seems way more efficient and less irritating for property owners.
But what do I know.
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Probably one of those silly things where the sidewalk funding can’t be commingled with the BRT funding. Govt has all kinds of stupid rules like that. It’s the reason why (in part)Union Station and the West St Ext weren’t done at the same time despite it making all the sense in the world.
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You could definitely schedule the project to occur near or simultaneously with the BRT project.
Though it definitely seems like pedestrian facilities are needed today and not in a few years so I can understand why the city would want to go ahead and put sidewalks in, instead of waiting a few more years.
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That’s correct, the BRT project needs to go through the various phases of the FTA pipeline, while the sidewalk can get done “tomorrow,” relatively speaking. I ride on New Bern every day (via bus) and at least once a week there is an accident or some other kind of incident in the un-curbed stretch between Raleigh Blvd. and WakeMed, the improvements can’t come fast enough.
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Correct, and the sidewalk stuff is in progress going to start work this year. The BRT is something we are applying for money for and doing studies on for 2023. It could possibly not even happen. Good to get the sidewalk in and done. I am excited about the ability to ride a bike up and down New Bern on the new separated greenway style sidewalks.
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Could have been a great road to build a new protected bike lane system if we were only progressive and forward thinking enough. Oh well.
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I actually think the plans for 10 ft wide sidewalks will work just as well. Technically they will be called multi-use paths. Think of two greenways on each side essentially.
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