Six months ago, not that many people knew details of the proposed 15^th Street improvement project.

Of those people who did know the details, most of them were Washington officials and N.C. Department of Transportation officials. From summer 2016 to early December 2016, more and more people became aware of those details, with many of those people opposed to the project as proposed by DOT.

Those people began showing up at City Council meetings and Planning Board meetings. As the months passed, their numbers grew, as did their opposition to the $16 million project. A standing-room-only crowd at a Dec. 8, 2016, meeting about the proposed project resulted in not one speaker voicing support for the project. Some people wanted it modified, but others wanted the project to be scrapped altogether.

At its Dec. 12 meeting, the City Council unanimously rejected the 15^th Street project as currently proposed by DOT. The council’s decision was met by applause by some audience members. The council’s decision left the door open for the project being modified and brought back to the city for consideration.

The project’s roots go back to 2000, according to DOT. The initial project called for improvements in the section of 15^th Street from Carolina Avenue (U.S. Highway 17 Business) to the Pierce Street area. The proposed improvements called for a divided road with a median separating the travel lanes.

DOT spokesmen said the project’s goal is to reduce the number of vehicles crashes on 15^th Street. Those crashes on that section of road occur about three times more frequently than crashes on similar roads in other areas of the state, according to DOT figures.

From Oct 1, 2010, to Sept. 30, 2015, there were 389 crashes on the section of 15^th Street from Carolina Avenue to U.S. Highway 264. Thirty-three percent (128) of those crashes were rear-end crashes, followed by 101 angle crashes (26 percent), 82 left-turn crashes (21 percent), 55 sideswipe crashes (14 percent) and 23 other types of crashes (6 percent).

Some residents and business owners along the project corridor oppose raised medians and other elements of the proposed project. Despite DOT modifications to the project, those residents and business owners remained unhappy with the project. Residents said the proposed project would not allow left turns onto 15^th Street from side streets in some areas, forcing them to go out of their ways to reach some destinations. Business owners said the medians would hinder traffic trying to enter or exit their businesses. Others raised concerns that medians would impede emergency vehicles trying to make left turns off 15^th Street onto other streets.

Mary Day Mordecai, who owns a 100-year-old house on North Market Street and plans to retire to Washington, is among a group of people opposed to the 15^th Street project as proposed by DOT. Mordecai, managing partner at Growing Edge Partners and who lives in Harrisville, New Hampshire, believes the project in its present configuration is not in the best interest of the city, especially residents and businesses along the project corridor.

“Essentially, what I feel is the synchronized street design is not a correct application for 15^th Street. So, I know that synchronized streets work in a lot of places, mostly on rural highways and sometimes in urban areas that are strictly business,” Mordecai said. “This particular stretch of road has so many residences as well as so many small businesses, and it is bounded on both sides by neighborhoods. From my perspective, that makes that kind of an application really the wrong thing for the town, essentially, because there will be many unintended consequences. My view is that the town, Little Washington, is really working hard to make itself appealing to its residents and attractive to tourists, and this move of installing what is, essentially, a highway in the northern end of the town would be shooting itself in the foot.”

Others who oppose the project in its present form have talked about unintended consequences such as raised medians that would worsen stormwater drainage in the area, restrict traffic from making left turns into businesses and hinder responses by fire and/or EMS personnel.

Sarah Ninan, who lives on West Main Street, bases her opposition to the 15^th Street project proposed by DOT as being an ill-conceived plan.

“Washington takes great care and concern with its historic district. I feel that the people who built their homes and businesses long ago on 15^th Street really deserve the same respect and care that the rest of the town gets. I also am concerned that if we enlarge that (street) greatly, it’s going to be a dividing line in the town,” Ninan said. “My main concern is for the houses and businesses that would lose their property. I’m also concerned that other measures have not been carefully explored before we would move into this larger action that would impact people so greatly.”

Mordecai, who lives part-time in Washington and whose mother once served on the City Council, is open to the project being revised, under certain conditions.

“I would not be opposed to a radically different design that was less expensive, did not take as much private property and did not install a big median in the middle that added to the drainage problem that we already have in that section of town, but I don’t think that’s what the DOT has in mind,” she said.

Ninan said she too could support a modified project, if certain parameters are met. “The scenario where I would support a modified (design) is if there was transparency and input from the businesses and those who would be impacted.” Ninan said public input on any forthcoming plan for that area of 15^th Street would be key to its being accepted by those who live and work along that corridor.

Mordecai said she’s aware that DOT officials want to meet with city officials to discuss possible modifications to the project that might make it more acceptable to those who oppose it. Ninan said she would attend such a meeting, if she were in town. The date, time and location of that meeting have not been decided. City officials said that meeting would be a public meeting.

DOT is aware of project concerns, according to one of its engineers.

“The problem with 15^th Street is it is currently over capacity and is projected to be over capacity by 2040. Improvements need to be made to the roadway to accommodate the projected traffic volumes. Additionally this section of road has a higher than average crash rate at several of the intersections and along the route as shown in the previous email I sent. The proposed project in its current state will improve mobility along this section of 15^th street and provide for a higher level of service along this corridor,” wrote Maria Rogerson, project engineer, in an email.

Rogerson also wrote: “The Department understands the concerns of the citizens and the Department is working on making sure to address their concerns, to our utmost ability, as it applies to this project directly. That being said the Department has made changes to the plans that were presented in August of 2016 based on comments and concerns. We have provided additional left turn movements, removed some locations of median, and relocated some left turn movements.”

Asked if the project could be modified so it addresses the existing capacity and safety issues and the concerns of those who oppose the project in its current configuration, Rogerson noted she would need specific details before she could determine if a suggested solution might work.

Should the city seek a significant modification of the project, it would not have to start the project-planning process anew, according to City Manager Bobby Roberson.

“The state told us they could modify it because it’s still on the board. Here’s an example. At the first hearing that we had with NCDOT, there were several different items that came up. NCDOT modified it based on the public hearing,” Roberson said. “One of the things was they had a divided median out there at the intersection of 15^th Street and (U.S. Highway) 17. They took all that out. There other was up there by Piston Ring. They (project opponents) had some questions about a divided median up there and the actual turn lanes that went in. They modified that.”

Roberson, noting he was not speaking for DOT, said, “DOT was saying, ‘We’ll be glad to receive the input. We’ll send it up to the design folks. We’ll modify it, based on the information that we receive.’ So, they’re open suggestions. I don’t want to speak for them, but that’s what they told us.”

Roberson believes a compromise that takes into consideration improving traffic safety on 15^th Street and addresses the concerns of those who oppose the existing 15^th Street project can be reached among DOT, the city and the project opposition.

“The council, if they want to move forward on it, would take the suggestions we had at the public hearing from the general public and the business owners along 15^th Street and forward those suggestions over to NCDOT. Of course, NCDOT had representatives who were there, and they heard it first hand about the citizens’ concerns. Those engineers have relayed it to design engineers as well,” Roberson said.

 

Why we oppose the synchronized street design for 15^th Street

Mary Day Mordecai summarized the key points in a document a group of residents and business owners submitted to the City Council during a hearing on the 15^th Street project.

While synchronized streets have been shown to be effective in some areas, we feel that the DOT’s proposed synchronized street design will cause many unintended and damaging consequences if used on 15^th Street.

Fifteenth Street is bordered by residences, businesses and medical facilities. There are several populous neighborhoods directly adjacent to the road. The current synchronized design will essentially turn 15^th Street into a highway with a 17.5 foot central median, limited left turns, five U-turns, and several larger intersections. The proposed road will decrease accessibility to businesses and neighborhoods and negatively impact commercial viability, quality of life and property values.

Challenges include:

• The median is designed to limit left turns at many locations in order to speed up traffic. One result will be decreased access to the many businesses that have been established on 15^th Street. This will hurt the local economy. It will also limit access to houses on 15^th Street and to adjacent neighborhoods, making them less desirable and valuable.
• Installation of the median requires taking 12 feet of privately held land on each side of the road (24 feet in total).  This will also have an impact on the local economy, forcing some businesses to close.  In addition, it will cause loss of residential property, putting many houses practically on the street and causing the total loss of some houses.
• The addition of more impermeable surface will increase storm water run-off that is already a significant problem for both businesses and adjacent neighborhoods in the area. Solving these existing problems will be made more difficult and costly by the road expansion.
• Many people believe that reduction of left turns on 15^th Street will result in increased traffic through adjacent neighborhoods, diminishing property values and negatively impacting quality of life. One of these neighborhoods is in an historic district recognized by the City of Washington.
• Taking of road-side property will result in destruction of many of the trees lining 15^th Street, making the road less appealing to residents and visitors and reducing storm water drainage capacity since trees take in water and reduce erosion.

We believe that there should be a simpler, less expensive solution to the traffic congestion and accidents on 15^th Street. It should be a solution that places highest value on the overall good of the town and its residents and that does not require taking a lot of private property, limiting access to homes and business, producing extra traffic in adjacent neighborhoods, making emergency rescue more difficult and destroying landscapes.