Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Community Meeting Sunday April 3rd at 2PM

All Carrboro Citizens are invited to a community organizing meeting to discuss the potential CVS development in downtown Carrboro.

The meeting will take place on Sunday April 3rd from 2:00-3:30pm at Carrboro Town Hall.

The proposed development of the corner of Greensboro and Weaver Street is of great importance to everyone in the community. We are not anti-development and are very interested in the smart development of this corner, located in the heart of Carrboro. There are several concerns about the proposed CVS project including:
• Traffic volume and congestion
• Traffic increase into the surround neighborhoods
• Pedestrian safety
• 24-Hour parking, noise
• The demolition of historic buildings for a parking lot

Overall, this does not appear to be a good fit for a high volume, large CVS. If you are concerned about the future of this corner please join us on Sunday. We will present the status of the CVS proposal, discuss drawings of their plans, brainstorm creative ideas about what we would like to see on that
corner, and end with action items and next steps.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

What is CVS proposing to do?

What is happening?
CVS is proposing to build a 2 story 24,000 square foot building and parking lot in the Center of Carrboro on the corner of Weaver St and N. Greensboro St. (See Map).  In order to construct this building at least 2 Historic Mill-houses will be demolished and many mature trees will need to be cut-down.  See the developer's initial plans at this Link.

What are the consequences for Carrboro?
To name a few..
  • This major development will have a huge impact on the character of downtown Carrboro. (see aerial photos).  The effects will be clearly seen from the Weaver St Market Lawn.
  • Traffic volume and congestion will increase at an already dangerous intersection of downtown. This will increase danger for pedestrians and bicyclists.  Traffic will also increase into the surrounding neighborhoods.
  • A high volume 24-Hour CVS will dramatically increase noise and light pollution very near to the mill-house residential neighborhood.  There will be more truck deliveries and dumpster pick-ups.
We simply believe this is the wrong place to put the highest volume CVS in the state of NC.
However, we do believe this corner could be developed by others in a smart way that would be a much better fit for downtown.

What can you do?
  • Tell the Carrboro Alderman your opinion on this project.  The developer must ask the town to rezone residential and light-commercial properties on Center Street in order for them to build a parking lot.
  • Attend meeting the developer is holding on  March 14th at 7PM at Carrboro Town Hall.
  • Attend community organizing meeting April 3rd at 2PM at Carrboro Town Hall.
  • Join out Google Groups announcement list (in lower right corner of this blog OR click here).  This will be a low-traffic list with only essential announcements.
  • Discuss in comments section below and tell everyone who might be affected by this.
More Information & news articles:
http://www.orangepolitics.org/2010/10/cvs-planning-major-development-in-downtown-carrboro
http://www.carrborocitizen.com/main/2010/11/11/development-on-key-corner-gets-first-review-by-board/
http://heraldsun.net/view/full_story/10274184/article-Carrboro-may-soon-house-a-new-CVS?instance=main_article
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/09/792581/carrboro-board-reviews-plans-for.html#story_tab_main%23ixzz156AuRELJ