I-40 Goes On

Thank you. The completion of Interstate 40 through the Triangle is becoming a reality. I really don't see the advantage to Orange County to have an Interstate where this particular Interstate is being planned. I don't know that there is a place in Orange County where we need another Interstate. And it's not like we don't have an Interstate.

We have an Interstate IE5 that sort of cuts Orange County in hand. Richard Whittitt, chairman of Orange County Commissioners. And that's going to be six lanes. I mean, it's already four lanes and we have to go through that. We're going to have that six lanes. That's already on the drawing board's problem of transportation is working on plans for that also. Now we're going to have another Interstate that sort of cuts across, leading from IE5, cuts across the South, eastern section of Orange County. I don't really see the advantages to Orange County residents of having that. First and foremost, we've been trying for two decades to get the I-40 finished and the East-West Expressway through Durham finish. So we're certainly delighted that that's happening. Durham City Manager, Orville Powell. Most of the activity and concern now is around how it will develop once it gets built. And because both of them will be built now.

Funds for the completion of Interstate 40 in North Carolina became available in 1968 in earlier activity of the federal government to create an Interstate system. Completing the Interstate system is still a big goal with a federal Department of Transportation. I'm Fay Mitchell Henderson. The completion of I-40 in the triangle is expected to have a dramatic impact on this area. But getting it underway hasn't always been easy. Orange County filed a lawsuit against the project which recently was dropped. Orange County Commission Chairman Richard Whittett. The rules that the board of transportation operated under at that time indicated that any citizen having business before the board of transportation should or shall be heard by the board of transportation. Since our representative was denied the opportunity in conflict with their own rules and regulations, we felt that a decision of that nature to locate an Interstate highway should not be made by policymakers without having to benefit of the input of the local governments in that

area and citizens in that area. Because we weren't denied the opportunity, we felt that we had a legitimate complaint and that we should in fact be given an opportunity to at least state our case before the decision makers and not just the engineers. We had talked to engineers but not to the policymakers. So Orange County, Capitol Hill, Cobbara and shape filed the lawsuit asking to be heard. As the lawsuit was going back and forth from different levels of court, so Chapel Hill and Cobbara decided after the first round that they would no longer be a party to the suit. But Orange County and shape and other citizens continued the lawsuit. We eventually struck out of court agreement with the Department of Transportation after they agreed to grant us a hearing before the board of transportation that they would

consider the location of our border and render the decision. So after we got that agreement and commitment from them, we dropped the lawsuit and we did in fact have our hearing before the board of transportation. They of course made the same decision that they had made earlier, but we hadn't gone to the process at that point. We have consistently raised a number of objections. Angela Raleo Saldi, president of shape and acronym for sensible highways and protected environments. For some 10 years, this citizen's group has been party to the lawsuit with Orange County to stop I-40. They've used up all their options and are in the process of disbanding. Number one, we always felt that the data gathered by the Department of Transportation to differentiate the local traffic from bypassable traffic or interstate traffic were inadequate and even questionable.

The other thing that we did was accepting the data provided or gathered by the Department of Transportation, we tried to come up with some criteria to decide among the ultimate. Our feeling has been that this was one of the weakest points in the Department of Transportation started. That no real suitable criteria seemed to have been developed to determine how to select among the proposed alternatives. Now, granted is not easy to come up with clear criteria, but at least we would have liked to see an effort. Those that we came up with and let us to recommend that alternate four be the selected choice were never really thoroughly examined or discussed by the Department of Transportation in order where they, in any way, part of the discussion, prejudice and opinion and pre-set attitudes

into a play that much larger part than the actual study of what was at hand. The alternate shape-favorite would have developed an existing corridor into a thorough, fair-for-local East West traffic, it would have created another corridor with access to Interstate 85 and U.S. 70 for non-local traffic. So it feels the suggestion of his group were never taken seriously nor was the group itself. That was a bit upsetting to us. We felt that for such a size of project, the member of the board should be sensitive enough to raise the important issue, but it seems that they buy, stock and borrow the position of the Department of Transportation, they are taught in time of expertise and any other question raised, it seems to be lumped into where all people that want to save the birds

or people that are never satisfied or that have personal drives, because the road goes too close today, and never viewed as an objection that is substantial and that may lead to a better solution, which was our hope. So that was a good point, but we had no other resources to work on, so we had to take what we could get. I thought it would run from research, triangle and cross highway 15501 between Chapel Hill and Durham, then connect with Interstate 85 West of Hillsboro. North Carolina Department of Transportation, Highway Administrator Billy Rose believes the route Chelzen was the best one. This location Chelzen was the best alternative when you consider all of the factors, not only traffic service, but all of the environmental factors. It was the one that provided the needed highway service at the same time, doing the least damage to the environment.

So all in all, on balance, all of the projects have both positive impacts and negative impacts, and on balance, the location that was chosen was the one that had the least amount of negative impact and the most amount of positive impact. In preparing an environmental impact statement, the Department of Transportation must consider effects on farm land, forest land, and the number of people to be relocated by the project. Rose feels information on proposed routes still makes the route Chelzen the best one. At DOT, they're gearing up for the project. It's taken from 68 up until just the last year in order to get the location tied down and get right away acquisition started. Right away acquisition is underway all the way now from Research Triangle to Hillsboro. We have let a couple of our three construction contracts beginning at the Research Triangle Park go in westerly, and I anticipate that's the way we will continue to build it. In other words, we'll add on the next link, take it over to 15501 and the next link a

little bit west of there until we tie into 85 of Hillsboro. Do you anticipate very much difficulty in getting the rest of the right of ways that you need? Well, that's hard to question to answer. I anticipate the project will proceed without any undue difficulties. There are obviously some people that are being relocated that where it has that adverse impact and there will probably be some right of way where we will have to end up condemning the right of way, but from the progress reports I get from our staff, it appears that everything is progressing in accordance with the plan. Now you're looking at a major undertaking here. How much money has been spent to date on this and by the time it's all over, what are the projections for the dollars spent? Well, the distance from the Research Triangle to Hillsboro is approximately 21.8 miles. The total cost for the project which would include right of way, preliminary engineering

and also construction is about 107.9 million. We have spent to date about 58.6 million, so that remaining part was what we will be letting to contract within the next three, four years. Now this will connect with 85 and then it will swing through here and go on down to Wilmington, is that correct? That is correct. Now actually the interstate portion will swing down and stop at I-95. We have underway another project which is being done with our primary funds which will extend I-40 all the way to Wilmington and when that project is completed the interstate route number will be placed on it. But that project from I-95 to Wilmington is not eligible for interstate funds. Now how much growth do you think the fact that the road there itself will spur you in already predicting that is not enough volume projected now? How much realistically can we expect?

Well, I don't think anybody knows the answer to that question. The reason I said I think we have not probably predicted the traffic that may occur on this road as high as it will be is because as I indicated earlier we've based our projections on the land use plans for the Chapel Hill Orange County Durham County area and I would believe that the land use plans on which the projections were based were the good at the time that they were developed but I think in light of current day activities they may have under anticipated the growth that will occur in that area. So when you translate the land use into trips which use our highways it probably means that our projections of traffic for that portion of our 40 are low. Also you have to consider the fact that with this road is being extended on down to the Wilmington area and it will become the major east-west highway in our entire state running all the way from the coast to the Tennessee line and actually on west to California.

So in terms of importance to our entire state this is probably one of the more major highways that we have. The target completion date for this project is in 1988 but if it overruns the almost $108 million budget it will take longer to complete as federal money becomes available. Will our area be ready? Orange County Comprehensive Planner Susan Smith. Current land use plan does not recognize I-40 except as a proposed route that was done basically because of the lawsuit. But we have in place under the current plan is an agricultural residential classification for most of the route. What that allows for is agricultural activities, agricultural services and single-family residential development primarily. We don't have too many areas for commercial development along the corridor or along the routes that already exist, we don't recognize industrial development there because the

character of the area now is agricultural residential. That of course would change now that the lawsuit has been dropped. There are always plans to develop it seems when a highway comes along. Having the developers ask when these zoning changes are made and you move that you're aware of along that proposed route. We have not received any applications to date. We have talked to many, many developers who have been people in and out of here for the last six months. I think that we will possibly have one development request that would go to public hearing in February but again they haven't submitted their application so I'm not really free to say that they're interested. We have had people asking what is possible along the corridor under the existing plan and I just mentioned agricultural uses would be permitted, residential uses would be permitted but not industrial commercial uses.

Really the interest has been very low, the by-developers in this area. I think a lot of that stems from the fact that the county had been involved in the lawsuit and because the plans, construction plans for this portion of I-40 aren't clear yet, bids have not been submitted and they have tentative dates for acquisition of property and construction but that I believe they are not yet formalized. In trying to plan for growth and development, is there any area you suspect would be more attractive for development to developers and are they being targeted first and say, well how do we handle this? Yes, I think there are certain areas that we are targeting. Orange County has just recently been involved in what's called the West Orange Area study. That area study includes a portion of the interchange with I-85 to I-40 and I-85. That I think would be our primary area.

The limitation is that it's also in a protected water supply watershed at least a portion of it is and so we have some concerns about the types of development and the amounts of development in that area. We would target each of the other interchanges, most likely we will concentrate on the interchanged south of Hillsboro and the interchanged north of Chapel Hill and Carboro and the other two interchanges I think would be less desirable for intense development but certainly we will look at them. Where are the other two? One is that it crosses with Weaver Dairy Road and New 86, the other one crosses Old 86 just south of the town of Hillsboro and of course there's a 15501 interchange as well. Smith reports that a few farms will be directly touched by I-40 but residents who move to northern Orange County for its rural flavor will be. This will be a considerable change in the area, the interstate will encourage additional growth particularly since there are so many interchanges between the two towns.

That impact will have to be dealt with, what we have done in the past with interstate highways is encourage non-residential development to occur at the interchanges and within a short distance of the interchanges also encourage higher density residential development to occur at those places but in the areas between the interchanges encourage a lower density residential development and pretty much discourage commercial and industrial development. We wouldn't want to see a strip development along I-40. The other issue that I think is more apparent is the aesthetic issue. I think Orange County Board of County Commissioners are very concerned about the looks of the interstate and the types of development that occur along the interstate and so that is why we are pursuing the Oberlite District that Durham and Durham County have looked at earlier. Now that it is apparent the interstate is coming, what changes might it make on the quality of a good or bad for the residents of Orange County?

The first thing that I think people will notice is the acceleration of residential development between the two towns. The towns are growing and is apparent that Orange County is a growing community but I think that what you will see is considerable emerging of the two towns Hillsboro, Chapel and Carborough because of the interstate. Orange County has always been a residential community for people interested in or employed at research trying to park or in rally or in Durham and I just think that the presence of the interstate will just accelerate the residential growth of the community and of course what you will get as a result is support services, support commercial establishments and I think given the presence of an economic development committee commission in the county you will also see a push for industrial development somewhere along the corridor. It is not clear whether it would be concentrated for example with in the area of I-85 and I-40

or whether it would be spread out along the corridor but there will be some industrial development which to date has been negligent Orange County. The residential growth makes it in beyond Hillsboro into effluent and environs. They will be as accessible to research triangle park as many areas of Chapel Hill and Durham are now. But what about Durham? How are they greeting this change? City manager Orville Powell. What we are trying to do is to get the quality growth that is coming to the area and get into Durham City if we can and certainly Durham County if not get its share of that growth. We are also trying to get a number of a better percentage of the folks moving in and working in the park to consider Durham for their home and I think there are some pretty exciting housing developments and activities that is going on now that is going to help us in that effort.

Where the head of the Better Business Bureau was predicting that 10,000 new jobs were going to be created in Durham County within the next five years. Well, that means it has a tremendous population increase and with it comes demands for public services on your schools and on your highways and so forth. We definitely have got to do the planning and anticipation of that because the lead time on these major kind of improvements are so long. We are planning based on the fact that we are going to have some free rapid expansion of population. If that doesn't occur then we have got the plans. We just won't have to start the implementation of it. Power fills the city's development of a reservoir on Little River and a wastewater treatment plant on Farrington Road are big assets and their preparation for growth. I-40 in Durham will pass between Durham and Chapel Hill at 15501 by the county line. It then crosses NC-54 by Farrington Road, parallels 54 into research triangle park and joins

with the existing part of I-40 there. Most of that land is now low density residential though there are some higher density and commercially zone areas but activity is picking up. Durham Principal Planner Fred Ikkis. There have been quite a few inquiries about land in the general vicinity of I-40. There's a lot of interest of developers now. The I-40 section through Durham County is projected to be finished within the next three years. So developers are already starting now to look for pieces of land, prepare their plans and even start construction in anticipation that by the time their project is finished or close to it that I-40 would be coming through and providing them with transportation access to various pieces of land along the route. So there's quite a bit of activity already.

You've seen a fair amount of activity here in the city. I'd say Durham County has seen even more inquiries in activity than we have. Only about half of I-40 coming through Durham County is actually within the city's jurisdiction. The rest of the I-40 route is within Durham County's planning jurisdiction. And their jurisdiction includes the area over around Research Triangle Park and North Carolina 55, which is also called Alston Avenue. And over in that area in particular there's been a tremendous amount of activity. I know both inquiries, land purchases and actual construction of various types of industry, commercial, office uses over in that section. Of course that's also the section of I-40 that's either already built or will be built the soonest.

I'm sure there'll be quite a bit of zoning activity, rezoning petitions and so on. Developers themselves of course are coming in with requests for rezonings. I think the city itself may initiate in the future some rezonings as well. The city and the county have been cooperating, working with an I-40 joint committee which involves city and county representatives. They've been meeting for several months now and they're in the process of preparing a long range development plan for the southern part of the county. They're particularly concerned about all the growth pressures that they see coming with I-40 as it's completed and they want to make sure that we've got good plans prepared to indicate what type of development we want to have, make sure that we'll have good patterns

of development, good quality development. It just thinks suggestions to amend the zoning ordinances or complete rezoning may occur as a result of this study. One thing they've already accomplished is having zoning a minute to allow for major transportation corridor. It's called the I-40 overlay zone. What the committee recommended and as I said the city and the county did ultimately adopt is an overlay zone for the I-40 corridor through Durham County and by overlay zone what that means is that it doesn't change the existing zones that are already there. If a piece of property now is zone for residential use it can still be developed residentially. If it's zone for industrial use it can still be developed industrially. What this does is just overlay some additional requirements on top of those areas and so you can still do the same kind of development but you just have to be a little bit more careful

about the impact of the development. Some of the major features of the overlay zone is that it reserved a 100 foot buffer on both sides of the I-40 right of way which cannot be developed. That's an area which has to remain with the trees and so on in its natural state. A couple of the other major provisions there are that developments proposed within this overlay zone have to come in to the city and to the county for approval of a site plan. The city and the county will have the opportunity to see exactly what type of building is being proposed where it's going to be, how the parking would be arranged, where the driveways would be and so on, the landscaping and we'd have an opportunity to do some revisions to the actual layout of the development if we felt that something was necessary and probably

the other major provision of that overlay zone is that it greatly restricts the type size number of signs that can be put up. The committee was particularly concerned about the potential for a lot of very large billboards being put up along I-40 and so one of the provisions is in their concerned signs and we tried to greatly limit the number of location and size of signs that could be put up. Essentially there will not be any billboards along I-40, the types of signs that will be allowed will be much smaller type business identification signs and not really the large advertising type signs. We spend a lot of time talking about making sure the aesthetics of the area are good but we have to wonder what the payoff is for these places that we'll be going into, how much

will the economy benefit, what will be some of the advantages to having I-40 around? I-40 is certainly going to help us a great deal transportation-wise just in general in a southern part of Durham County. One of our problems in southern Durham County right now is transportation, particularly east-west transportation. We don't have very many good major roads that we can use to get back and forth in the southern part of the county and I think this is one reason why some areas which logically might have been developed with housing and so on in connection with research triangle park have not developed over the years in a more specific economic sense development, tax base and so on. It's obviously going to help a great deal.

We expect that I-40 is going to generate a lot of development in the southern part of the county and we've seen a fair amount of it happening already. But what about expanding services, water, schools, roads and such? As I mentioned before the I-40 City County Committee is working on a long-range plan for the I-40 area for southern Durham County and one of the things that we think will come out of that plan is some general indication as to where there are going to be higher density areas, lower density development areas and we'll begin to get an idea of where there might be a need in the future for a school or a public safety station or a park and so on. Another thing that we're looking at right now that should give us some ideas along those same lines is the city has its capital improvements program that it updates each year where we look six years ahead at what kinds of major public facilities will be needed. Safety stations, parks, water lines, sewer lines, major roads and so on and we're in our

capital improvements program also looking at what kinds of needs there will be in the south for public investments and public facilities in the future. So Durham City and County are pulling together plans for the I-40 corridor. Meanwhile in Orange County they're planning to protect the watershed but otherwise. And we will be trying to develop a thoroughfare plan to try to come to grips with the transportation problems in the area but as far as providing the kinds of services because we know that as more elderly people move into Orange County that the services that are needed for that section of the population of schools obviously adequate day care just a whole host of services that are necessary for a population will be there for some future Board of County Commissioners to deal with.

Richard Whittitt, Orange County Commissioner's Chairman. Whether ready or not in about four years I-40 and as many consequences will be here. I'm Famelton Henderson for WUNC.