Orange County is inching closer to consensus on a regional transit plan that could create a light rail system, expand bus service, and connect the county to the rest of the Triangle.
The Board of County Commissioners approved the regional transit plan "in principle" Tuesday night, contingent upon the approval of an implementation agreement with Triangle Transit Authority.
Mayor Bill Bell made improved public transit a point of emphasis in his "State of the City" speech Monday night, and that was sort of timely since the City Council is getting an update on just that subject at its Thursday work session.
Transportation planners are talking about Triangle Transit's favored routes for rail connections between UNC Hospitals and downtown Durham and from West Durham to southeast Wake County, as well as suggestions for new and expanded bus service in Durham.
Analyzing and estimating for all this is still a work in progress, but transportation authorities and advisors in Durham, Orange and Wake counties are hoping to put a half-cent sales tax for transit upgrades up for voters' approval this fall.
Read more about what's in the update in Wednesday's Durham News.
The council work session, in the second-floor committee room at City Hall, is open to the public, and starts at 1 p.m. The transit briefing is No. 22 on a 25-item agenda, but the council rarely takes up items in agenda order. A memo and presentation pdf are available at www.durhamnc.gov/agendas/2011/cws20110221/AttachmentsList.cfm#7579.
UNC's Kenan-Flagler business school wants to expand its Paul J. Rizzo Conference Center at Meadowmont, but it may have to choose between cutting specimen trees, building on a steep slope, creating the need for a railroad bridge or obstructing the view from a historic house it owns.
The Rizzo center provides a revenue stream for the school, as it hosts professional conferences with on-site meals and lodging.
UNC presented a concept plan for Phase III of the conference center Monday night. Phases I and II consist of three buildings, including the historic Dubose House, totaling 161,000 square feet and 120 guest rooms. Phase III would add another 90,000 square feet with 80 guest rooms.
A corridor planned for a future light rail line connecting UNC to the rest of the Triangle runs through the middle of the site. To avoid building on a historic graveyard or on steep slopes, Kenan-Flagler proposes parking on one side of the rail corridor and the new building on the other.
But Town Council members expressed concern that would force the Triangle Transit Authority to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build a bridge over the access road between the building and the parking lot.
