The Durham City Council voted Monday night to try to help a residential neighborhood cope with a traffic influx caused by the widening of Interstate 85--via crosswalks, speed bumps and sidewalks.
About 10 residents of the Northgate Park neighborhood told the council that they were dismayed to see their normally quiet streets filled with traffic that usually travels on the much busier West Club Boulevard. The boulevard was closed starting Monday for construction projects related to the interstate widening, and will remain closed for up to 90 days.
In the meantime, the city has set up a detour through the neighborhood. But this has residents concerned for their safety.
"It's taking your life in your hands just to cross the street to go see your neighbors," said Jim Corbitt, a resident of the neighborhood who attended at the meeting with his wife Michelle and their infant child.
Corbitt was one of several residents who said they had chosen to live in the Northgate Park neighborhood because of its community atmosphere, which they said is now being threatened.
"It feels like we're under attack right now," said Elizabeth Gray, accompanied by her daughter Hannah.
"The very thing that made this neighborhood so special has been taken from us."
And Cheryl Sweeney, president of the Northgate Neighborhood Association, said the city administration had not done a sufficient job gathering public input.
Council members said they sympathize with the neighborhood's concerns, but that there was no reasonable alternative to the detour. "As much as I would love to see another road [serve as a detour], I just don't see where it's at," said Erick Larson, a city council member.
But the council did unanimously agree to look into ways to preserve the neighborhood's safety through such measures as crosswalks, sidewalks, speed bumps and improved signs explaining the path of the detour to motorists.
Sweeney agreed that the city was trying to make the best of a bad situation, but other residents had lingering doubts.
"I think they were sympathetic, I think they listened," Gray said. "It's just like too little, too late, anything we ask for, because the detour's there."
IN OTHER BUSINESS: The council approved an amendment to the small-area plan for future development in East Central Durham and a rezoning request to allow the rehabilitation of 10 dilapidated duplexes in the Eagle Village neighborhood.
The council also heard citizens' comments on a proposed reduction in the size of the buffer zones necessary for asphalt plants, but decided to wait for more information before taking any action. Some citizens said the plants would cause both air and noise pollution.
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