© 2008 NCSU STUDENT MEDIA
The project to revitalize Hillsborough Street is set to begin in the late spring or early summer, according to George Chapman, the chair of the Hillsborough Street Partnership.
Currently, Hillsborough Street has two lanes traveling in each direction and one parking lane on the business side. Once the renovation is complete, the road will look much different, according to Chapman.
“The new format of the street will have one lane of traffic in each direction with a lane for parallel parking on each side, and each side
seperated by a median,” he said.
The renovations will result in less opportunities to make left turns along the street.
“The left turning movements that currently choke up the street will be eliminated by going to a net roundabout and essentially make a u-turn,” Chapman said.
Once the project is completed, motorists will not be able to turn left down the side streets when headed from Dan Allen Drive to Oberlin Road.
While many feel the renovation will bring positive changes, not everyone is optimistic.
Nathan Phillips, the owner of Ningyo Pearly Bubble Teahouse, said that every few months the developers say that something is going to happen, but it never does.
In Phillips’s opinion, there are three things that could happen.
“One, with economy the way it is [the city] won’t spend the money. Two, there [will be] no point in the project if [students] don’t use the street as a resource,” Phillips said. “Or three, the city continues to drag its feet or create so many pre-conditions…something doesn’t get done.”
Phillips said that if the latter option turns out to be the case, Hillsborough Street won’t be able to survive.
And even if the project is completed, some people, after looking at the plans for the project, can see traffic problems brewing even with the new street design.
Alan Lovette, the owner of Melvin’s wondered about the use of parallel parking.
“Why not angled parking,” he asked. “Most people don’t know how to parallel park.”
Lovette also said that he expects traffic to slow to a crawl.
Phillips thinks that traffic will be so bad it will deny pedestrians the ablility to cross the street.
But despite the problems he forsees, Lovette is ready for the project to begin.
“If it happens, it will give the street a second chance [to thrive],” he said.
Lovette warned that businesses must have the things students need, or students will not be drawn to Hillsborough anyway. However, Lovette said that even though it will take time to make the street a place students want to come to, that time should be now.
“It’s time to make [Hillsborough Street] the students’ place to go. We just want the students to come back to the street,” Lovette said.
Pei Wen Thor, a senior in engineering said that she went to Hillsborough much more this semester than she used to.
“I never used to go there for the past three years.” She said.
And after she has been there much more often and seen how the street functions, she agrees with the assessment that traffic will be worse, but thinks that the extra parking will be a plus.
“It will be good in terms of parking because it’s always hard to find parking,” Phillips said. “One of the things Franklin Street has that Hillsorough doesn’t is parking.”
One final problem that the street will face is closure to traffic while construction on the street is ongoing. This worries Phillips.
“My fear is that my business won’t survive if the street is closed for any length of time,” he said.
But no matter what is done, Phillips knows that the relationship between the businesses and students has to improve in order for the street to survive regardless.
“There is a real tension between the residents of the community, college students and in turn business,” he said.