The Town of Chapel Hill picked up $1 million in federal grants on Thursday evening, which will go toward feasibility studies for its plan to vastly expand its greenway system.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced seven different North Carolina-based projects are being given funding from its 2023 RAISE grants (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) program. The money goes toward transportation and connectivity projects with “significant local or regional impact,” and Chapel Hill earned a portion of the $1.5 billion available. The town shared a release Friday with the news, after U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis announced all the North Carolina projects that earned funding on Thursday.
The local government committed to exploring an Everywhere to Everywhere greenway system in 2022 as part of its Complete Communities growth strategy that aims to make the town more transportation-friendly, environmentally conscious, and live-able for more people. The greenway expansion specifically aims to build a network of paths, trails and more to connect local schools, parks, shopping centers, UNC campus, and healthcare facilities to provide safer, more direct routes off of traditional roads.
“The plan is to focus housing growth along an ‘everywhere-to-everywhere’ greenway network,” Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said in December when discussing the project, “with attention to making sure that amenities – like parks and shopping – are accessible to neighborhoods on foot, rolling, or by bike.”
Chapel Hill said based on its early models, the complete greenway system would make it so 57 percent of the town’s residents will live within a quarter of a mile from a transportation greenway.
The news drew excitement from several town leaders on social media, as well as Jennifer Keesmaat — the urban planner who Chapel Hill hired as a consultant to build its Complete Communities framework.
Chapel Hill has a bold plan to reorient housing growth for a green, sustainable future – where all neighbourhoods are connected by state-of-the-art everywhere to everywhere greenways. Council embraced a big vision, and staff have had the tenacity to deliver. A first, but… https://t.co/PXq0hXetnf
— Jennifer Keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) June 23, 2023
Chapel Hill’s parks, bike lane, and greenways as displayed on an interactive map launched by the town. Greenways can be seen in dark green and unpaved greenways are marked with olive green. (Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.)
In its release, the town government said the feasibility studies funded by the RAISE grant will explore how to build out a 25-mile network of greenways and examine “the system as a whole, rather than a piece-by-piece approach.” Several priority corridors were identified in Chapel Hill’s 2020 Mobility and Connectivity Plan and will be used to guide the eventual map of greenways. Chapel Hill also said the feasibility studies will support building community engagement around the project to learn about needs and should help secure the local government additional grants in the future.
The $1 million Chapel Hill received is part of the $65 million granted by the DOT to infrastructure projects throughout North Carolina. Among those is WALK NC by the state’s Department of Transportation, which received $9 million. The project aims to create safer pedestrian crossings and will be implemented in 12 different counties, including Chatham County. Other cities and towns receiving money from the grant include Raleigh, Lumberton and Charlotte.
To view Chapel Hill’s full proposal for its Everywhere to Everywhere Greenway network, click here.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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