Stalling or delaying a project happens a lot in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. We often hear:
- More time is needed, or
- More studies are needed, or
- We must wait for our understaffed town staff to answer a long list of questions before proceeding.
Delaying or stalling a project stops progress. It makes projects more expensive, delays our democratic processes, and suppresses conversations that our community should have.
In Carrboro, we are now seeing this dynamic play out around restarting a long-stalled Bolin Creek Greenway discussion.
Earlier this year, Carrboro’s Town Council indicated that they planned to start a discussion around public engagement for a possible extension of the Bolin Creek Greenway by the end of this calendar year.
That was welcome news — we were looking forward to learning how to move forward the discussion about building out Carrboro’s greenway and connecting our schools, parks, and trails.
But the conversation about the next steps in the public engagement process appears to be delayed. At the 11/15 Carrboro Town Council meeting, Town Manager Richard White confirmed that discussion of the extension of the Bolin Creek Greenway has been postponed because of the volume of questions from council members to staff about the project.
The discussion that should take place now concerns how public engagement about the proposed greenway will unfold in the coming months. We call on Carrboro’s Town Council to move forward and restart this much-needed conversation around discussing greenways that our community wants and needs to have.