The final public hearing before local officials are set to vote on the potential light rail project that would connect Orange and Durham counties is set for Tuesday night.
The Orange County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the overall Orange County Transit plan, which includes the Durham-Orange Light Rail project, on April 27.
The proposal has encountered funding hurdles in recent months and has drawn a lot of attention from residents supporting and opposing the project.
“It’s the only thing on the agenda,” Orange County Commission chair Mark Dorosin said of Tuesday night’s public hearing. “So we’re going to get a presentation on the plan, and then we’re going to listen to what everybody has to say about it.”
Dorosin said Orange and Durham county elected officials have had continued conversations regarding the cost sharing of the project.
“Continuing to tweak the thing to try to ensure that we protect Orange County residents’ interests, financial interests,” Dorosin said, “as well as take into account what the project costs have become, what the goals are and the transit needs in the community, which are not getting any smaller.”
Dorosin added that commissioners had been swamped with e-mails, letters and phone calls from constituents regarding the plan.
“I don’t know that we haven’t heard from anybody who is not interested in this issue,” Dorosin said. “We’ve heard from lots of people, and it’s great. That’s what local government looks like.”
The public hearing is set for seven o’clock Tuesday evening at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road.
The financial projections for light-rail just get worse and worse, and will continue to grow in the years up to implementation. Now is the time to switch to a much more diverse transit strategy that will cover current and projected traffic patterns, which go in all directions from Carrboro and Chapel Hill, not just to Durham. And what good is a 40-minute ride on light rail – that won’t tempt anyone to abandon their car.