Chapel Hill residents spoke up Monday about what they want to see from the rebuilding and restructuring of much of the Ephesus-Fordham District.

Residents have complained in the past about the lack of space for walking and confusing traffic patterns. On Monday night, the Town of Chapel Hill said the goal is to change that.

Tony Sease is the founder of Civitech. It’s a planning and design business for walkable communities. He will be designing the architecture of the new plan, and led the meeting. Sease provided pictures of features he says would be important for Ephesus-Fordham.  Sease said, “Both buildings close to the street to help create some spatial definition; a very important component as well is street trees to provide shade and canopy.”

Sease also asked that residents provide their own examples of what would be important in the area. Requests included more separated bike paths, modeling similar to Meadowmont and an elevated walkway between Franklin Street and Ram’s Plaza.

Residents also voiced concern about whether their opinions or requests would matter in the end. Chapel Hill Director of Planning Ben Hitchings says the town is taking all thoughts into consideration during the building process.  “I think we’ve got a process that will help us improve the framework in a substantive way so that we can get the place that we want.”

Hitchings also says even though they are listening to anyone and everyone, there are over 190 acres to restructure.  “Know that this is a long-standing process. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take place sort of bit by bit throughout the district.”

The town will host a follow-up meeting as planning continues for the area. It will be on September 7th at 6:00 PM at the Chapel Hill Public Library.

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