Several local business owners are upset about the renovation of downtown Pittsboro and the way plans are being developed that ignore their business interests.
I have heard that the circle around the historic courthouse is being reduced to one lane (how will that impact truck traffic?), that angled parking will be replaced with parallel parking (have you been practicing how to parallel park?) and that parking lots used during the day, such as the Presbyterian Church lot, will be cut off from the public.
Those do not sound very business friendly.
There is an amazing lack of information about the downtown Pittsboro renovation. I have gone through the calendar year 2016 minutes (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0C58b8Uq5MTOTJhUFlOY0o5WVk) of the Pittsboro council and found only four references:
January 25: Commissioner Fiocco stated there were presentations to the property owners.
April 11: Manager Gruesbeck has a drawing from Kimley Horne (the design firm?).
May 09: Mayor Perry said Commissioner Farrell indicated they are still working on the circle and a couple other things.
May 23: Mr. Musarra (who is he?) gave a presentation. A link to the presentation is included in the commission minutes but the link does not work.
I did find a presentation dated June 16, 2014 called the Pittsboro Downtown Vision Plan. It states that consultants spent two whole days in Pittsboro, and then talked with about a dozen citizens and elected officials. That report is on my blog at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0C58b8Uq5MTU1ItNjB3MktSWTg. It indicates a goal for parallel parking despite drivers and shoppers disliking it but it apparently that provides more room for bike lanes. The four corners of around the Courthouse Circle should become parks. Also, the presentation says that there are opportunities to relocate businesses. That alone would worry me if I owned a business in Pittsboro.
Do we really want Pittsboro to become another Chapel Hill? That same presentation calls for Pittsboro to be described as Artistic, Night Life, and Organic (whatever Organic means in this context).
There are many suggestions in this presentation that Pittsboro does need: improved sidewalks, buried power lines, better crosswalks. However, parallel parking, constricting traffic around the circle, and closing parking lots sounds like things Pittsboro does not need.
So, Pittsboro leadership, how about providing more information on the plans and the logic behind decisions? Also, a big question - where is the money coming from, and who are the special interests that will profit from these renovations?
